Class _G^4-2£il 

Book .IB 15 

Copyright N°_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



! 



BADS WORTH" ON BRIDGE 



THE LAWS AND PRINCIPLES 

OF 

BRIDGE 

WITH CASES AND DECISIONS 

REVIEWED AND EXPLAINED 
BY 

"BADSWORTH" 




G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Ube IRmcfterbocker press 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Ccm§& Received 

CLASS A^XXe No. 

ia / m 

/ copy R 

— " II — — J 



Copyright, 1903 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS * 



Published, November, 1903 




TEbe IKnlcfeerbocfcer press, 1Re\v JI)orfe 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introductory ...... i 

General Principles ..... io 

The Laws of Bridge ..... 23 

Etiquette of Bridge ..... 49 

Dummy Bridge ...... 52 

Cases and Decisions ..... 55 

The Shackles of Shibboleths ... 70 

Conventions ....... 76 

The Lead of the Fourth-Best Card . . 91 

Eleven: A Ready Reckoner . . . 105 

Playing an Unnecessarily High Card . . 109 

The Discard ........ 113 

Forcing . . . . . . . .118 

Amenities 121 

The Points . . . . . . .126 — 

A Good Start and a Definite Goal . . 133 

The Declaration by the Dealer . . . 142 

The Declaration by Dummy .... 166 

Doubling . 175 

iii 



iv 



Contents 



What Suit to Lead 
What Card to Lead 
The Play of the Hand . 

(The Dealer and Dummy.) 
The Play of the Hand . 

(The Partners.) 
Illustrative Hands 
Index .... 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS 



Book. — The first six tricks taken by the same partners. 
Carte Blanche. — A hand which contains no picture 

card. % 
Chicane. — A hand which contains no trumps. 
Double Chicane. — No trumps contained in the hand 

of a player or of his partner. 
Dummy. — The dealer's partner. Dummy's hand is 

exposed on the table. 
Eldest Hand. — The hand at the left of the dealer, 
Finesse. — An attempt to take a trick by playing a 

card which is not the highest held, nor in 

sequence with it. 
Grand Slam. — Taking all thirteen tricks. 
Little Slam. — Taking twelve out of the thirteen tricks. 
Odd. — The first trick taken over the book. 
Revoke. — Playing a card not of the suit led when 

cards of that suit are held. 
Ruff. — Leading from a suit which the partner can 

trump. 

Singleton. — A suit of one card. 
Slam. — See Grand Slam and Little Slam. 
Tenace. — The best and third best of any suit. Ace 
and Queen. 

Yarborough. — A hand with no card higher than a 
nine. 

V 



I 



INTRODUCTORY 



Bridge is Whist with variations; the trump 
suit is chosen by the dealer or his partner, and the 
cards of the dealer's partner are always exposed on 
the table and played by the dealer. 

Thirty points have to be made by tricks to win a 
game ; the score for honours is separately recorded, 
and included in the rubber to tab. 

It is a very easy game to learn; as twenty-six 
cards are seen, there is less to remember than at 
whist. 

A beginner should not try to learn scoring : let 
him play his first three rubbers by watching each 
item of the score as it is entered on the sheet, and 
he will readily understand it without any school 
work: it is very easy to write the score made by 
tricks on one part of a sheet of note-paper, and the 
score made by honours on another part of it. 

It is easy to see by a glance at the rules that no- 
trump and the red suits have the highest value and 
take you more quickly to the goal of 30; if the 
general impression on looking at your cards is that 



2 



Badsworth on Bridge 



it would be a good hand with no trumps, or with 
hearts or diamonds for trumps, you should at once 
declare no trumps or hearts or diamonds, when 
you are a beginner, without weighing other con- 
siderations which will come easily to you as your 
knowledge of the game increases : if you feel it 
would be a bad hand on any of these expensive 
declarations, if you dealt you should pass ; if you 
did not deal you should call spades unless you have 
very great strength in clubs. 

A player with a bad memory need not be dis- 
couraged, for what is called card memory is not 
memory in the strict sense of the word: it is 
rather the retention for less than two minutes of a 
rapid impression, which is kept at the portals and 
not stored away in cells. 

Do not try to learn too much at once : if you are 
anxious to begin playing immediately, you should 
turn to the chapters on The Points, and What Suit 
to Lead and grasp the general rule of What Card to 
Lead, and sit down to play with what intelligent 
observation you can command without paying 
any heed to silly chatter or unsought-for instruc- 
tion : it is a mistake to touch the dangerous point 
of doubling, or to try to understand the finer points 
of the game without first laying down a broad and 
solid foundation on which the future knowledge is 
to rest. The remainder of this chapter can lie 



Introductory 3 



over to be read at leisure, by any one who is in- 
terested in the genesis of the game. 

Bridge found iis way into England by an acci- 
dent ; in 1894 Lord Brougham, on returning from 
the South of France, was dealing in a game of 
Whist at the Portland Club, and instead of turn- 
ing up the last card, deliberately placed it face 
downwards on his packet. 

He explained apologetically to his partner that 
he thought he was playing Bridge, whereupon 
several voices asked what Bridge was. With the 
enthusiasm of a novice for a new game, he ex- 
pressed unbounded surprise at the ignorance 
around him, and offered the boon of general 
enlightenment. 

'His offer was promptly accepted, and the game 
caught on at once. Within six months of this in- 
cident Whist was hurled from the pedestal on 
which it had long posed proudly as the best of 
games in its surest strongholds, and Bridge took its 
place for ever and aye in the card-rooms of the 
Portland and Turf Clubs. 

Prophecy is the most gratuitous of all forms of 
error, but there cannot be a shadow of doubt about 
the permanent popularity of Bridge. It routed 
Whist in a veni vidi vici manner, not by assailing 
its outworks, but by capturing its citadel. 

Whist was carried to such a high scientific point 



4 



Badsworth on Bridge 



by the researches and writings of Dr. Pole and 
"Cavendish,'' that it is doubtful if there are one 
hundred men in England who are indisputably 
admitted to be really fine players. Intelligent 
men do not care to accept a permanently subordi- 
nate position in a partnership of two, and to have 
much of their amusement taken out of a game by 
feeling that a little more knowledge on their part 
would have materially altered the result of many' 
a hand. The elevation of Whist from a game to a 
stud}' lessened its general attractiveness. 

Bridge is much more amusing, and the general 
aspect of a Whist party and of a Bridge party is as 
different as 'that of an audience at the Lyceum and 
at the Gaiety : the one seems to be getting through 
a somewhat wearisome social function, the other 
appears to be enjoying itself. At the same time, 
Bridge offers more opportunities for enterprise and 
for making the most of individual powers and 
cleverness, and it has already attracted a number 
of votaries who looked upon Whist as a dull and 
impossible game. 

The reason for this is not difficult to find. The 
hand of the dealer's partner is always exposed and 
played by the dealer, and it is far easier for men 
who have been accustomed to two-handed games 
to play a game in which they see twenty-six cards 
than one in which they only see thirteen ; and 



Introductory 5 



manv men who preferred Piquet and Bezique to 
Whist now play Bridge. 

So the point of view is entirely different, as that 
of South Kensington and Bayswater, of Piccadilly 
and Pimlico. Whist players are terribly conserv- 
ative, and do not easily adapt themselves to new 
situations, and it is marvellous how indifferently 
some very good Whist players play their cards at 
Bridge. 

Men, therefore, who take up Bridge do not find 
themselves so immeasurably behind good Whist 
players in the play of the cards, as all of them 
have a fair start from a fresh vantage-ground, and 
they have not to accept that permanently subord- 
inate position which is generally distasteful. 

Whist is an admirable combination of skill and 
chance, but it leaves no scope for judgment beyond 
deciding what to go for in the play of the cards. 
Bridge brings judgment in making or doubling the 
trump on a level with skill in play, and so, avoiding 
the dangers of Poker, combines its attractions with 
the fascinations of Whist. 

As many games are Avon and lost at Bridge by 
the exercise of this judgment as by the play of the 
cards, and numbers of men who never played Club 
Whist show far sounder judgment in making the 
trump declaration than many good Whist players, 
who generally err on the side of excessive caution, 



6 



Badsworth on Bridge 



As every hand is played out, the interest con- 
tinues until the last trick, and there is no throwing 
down the cards when the game is won, for each 
trick has a value after this artificial barrier is 
reached. 

The system of scoring is based upon sounder 
scientific principles. At Bridge two sides are 
never engaged in a struggle for an odd trick which 
has positively no value whatever, as is often the 
case at Whist when the side with their score at 
three, holds tw T o by honours, with their adver- 
saries' score at one. 

At Bridge there is a certain penalty for every 
error, and a player losing a trick or making a 
revoke loses the value of that trick, or the value of 
three tricks, whatever may be the issue of the 
game or rubber. At Whist a player with his score 
at love can revoke without incurring any penalty 
if his adversaries win the game independently of 
the revoke. In each of the next four or five hands 
he may contrive to miss one or two tricks by very 
bad play, and yet after all he may win two trebles 
and not be one penny the worse for five or six out- 
rageous blunders. 

There is no penalty at Bridge for making the 
most of the cards, and a player can win every 
possible trick with the full assurance of not being 
punished for it; and two partners have never to 



Introductory 7 



indulge in a mournful duet over their bad luck 
in losing a rubber by a brilliant coup which 
" Cavendish" himself would be proud to father. 

When men spend hours in learning how to make 
the greatest number of tricks out of the combined 
hands, it is ludicrous to impose the severest possi- 
ble penalty on successful trick-making. This con- 
stantly happens at Whist when a side, by fine play, 
scores four instead of three, and, by being unable 
to score honours the next hand, eventually loses 
the rubber instead of winning it and pays three 
points instead of receiving seven— a fine of ten 
shillings, or ten pounds, whatever the points may 
be, on successful play. 

One of the finest Whist players in the world, 
who clings to the old game and refuses to be con- 
verted, summarised his objections to Bridge as 
follows : 

(1) I hate Dummy Whist. 

(2) I dislike to sit down to shilling points, and to 

find I am playing five-pound points. 

(3) I don't like to win a rubber and to lose my 

money. 

Bridge, of course, is not Dummy Whist with the 
manifest advantage given to the player of Dummy 
from start to finish. Each player in turn plays 
with his partner's hand exposed, and one side has 



8 Badsworth on Bridge 



no advantage over the other. Hating Dummy 
Whist is not incompatible with liking Bridge. 

The objection to doubling is equally unsub- 
stantial. A man who sits down to play shilling 
points can never find himself playing a hand for 
more than two-shilling points unless he or his 
partner consider it to their advantage to do so. It 
rarely happens at Bridge that doubling, which 
prevents expensive suits being rashly declared 
trumps, is carried very far, and the more the game 
is known, the less re-doubling there is. 

The third objection, though specious, will not, 
on examination, hold water; for at Whist the 
winner of seven rubbers out of eight may lose one 
point, while at Bridge winning the rubber secures 
one hundred points, which is ample reward for it, 
and these hundred points have precisely the same 
value as any other hundred points made in the 
rubber, which is an integral part of the more 
rational system of scoring at Bridge. The satis- 
faction of getting the odd trick and of winning 
the rubber instead of losing it is not materially 
diminished by having to pay a small sum instead 
of receiving it; the small loss represents a great 
save. 

The greatest tribute to the attractions of Bridge 
is paid by the elderly members of several clubs, 
who object to the introduction of the new game on 



Introductory 9 



the ground that if once it got in there would soon 
be no Whist. This view is doubtless correct ; but, 
unless Bridge was a more amusing game, there 
would be no chance of the disappearance of Whist, 
and it is not clear why men who are still young 
enough to learn a new variation of the game 
should be fettered for life to its antiquated 
absurdities. • 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES 



In justice to my little brochure which led the 
way in Bridge literature five years ago it is only 
fair to mention that a published statement that 
the practice of its author is at variance with its 
precepts is based upon misapprehension and has 
no foundation in fact. 

On the contrary, its many readers may rest 
assured that its author after a further experience 
of 20,000 games with recorded results, so far from 
having given it the go-by, clings to its main princi- 
ples with stronger faith than ever, and is firmly 
convinced of their soundness and success. 

Five years have developed differences of opinion 
upon every conceivable point, and this is probably 
one of the many causes of the growing popularity 
of the game: quot homines, tot sententicc: it has not 
been killed by uniform excellent play with au- 
thoritative conventions which all good players 
agree upon, and which every one must learn and 
follow, or else abandon the game. 

So by not assuming too professional an air, 

10 



General Principles 



1 1 



Bridge has avoided the sentence of doom which 
consigned Whist to decent sepulture. 

A member of a well-known County Club lately 
asked if the Committee of the Portland Club would 
definitely settle certain points about declarations 
and play on which good players differ. Ne sutor 
supra crepidam. Such action would not be within 
the power of the Committee of any Club, even if 
its members had the requisite knowledge of the 
game. 

Should any Club Committee assume such juris- 
diction, and lay down with a semblance of au- 
thority fixed rules and directions on points of 
policy and play, Bridge would become a study, and 
would cease to be a game. 

Every possible view can be held and written 
about Bridge: the College Don, ignoring the part 
which human feelings play in every partnership of 
two, may teach from his cloistered seclusion that 
at Bridge and in life, happiness and success can be 
best attained by a careful study of mathematical 
chances. 

Some writers may recommend their peculiar 
views by asserting that all good players have 
adopted them, and that experience has proved 
them to give the most satisfactory results ; these 
assurances must be received with the same reserve 
as the puffs of other goods. 



i2 Badsworth on Bridge 



All the old Whist fallacies and broken-legged 
theories have been dragged out of the lumber- 
room, and furbished up afresh to the wonderment 
and bewilderment of the restless souls ever craving 
for something new. 

The malcontents who are always with us, are 
of course dissatisfied with the existing order of 
things : they have unfurled the old banners which 
their predecessors in title have waved in all ages, 
and shouted the old Shibboleths : they proclaim 
with the boundless self-confidence of inexperience, 
that the only way to put your house in order is to 
pull it down and build it up again in a hurry: 
foundations are a mistake, and a corner-stone 
useless. 

They scoff at the accumulated wisdom of those 
who have trod the paths before them, and make 
light of the recorded results of organised observ- 
ation. 

The call for trumps is boldly stated to be obso- 
lete; the worst lead at Whist is alleged to have 
been proved by experience to be the best lead at 
Bridge ; whose experience it is, and when, where, 
and how this was proved is judiciously left to the 
imagination of a credulous audience. 

The general idea that two men who enter into 
partnership to carry on a joint business should pull 
together, and that each should let the other know 



General Principles 13 



the steps he was taking in furtherance of their 
common object, is denounced as a gigantic blun- 
der: they should do nothing of the kind: they 
should never dream of giving each other a hint 
what to do, for fear the man over the way, who has 
a rival establishment, should find out what they 
are after and put a spoke in their wheel. 

This brings up for examination one of the first 
principles of the game; each player must decide 
for himself whether the old idea that union is 
strength is proved to be wrong by saying that any 
information you disclose about your cards is of 
more use to the dealer than to your partner ; this 
assertion does not appear to wear even the aspect 
of accuracy. 

You are playing against the dealer for half the 
time you are at the table : if you never give your 
partner any information about your hand; if you 
lead a two leaving him in doubt whether you hold 
four, five, six, or seven cards of a suit ; if you play 
an independent game and tell your partner no- 
thing which will enable him to assist you; the 
very essentials for a successful combination are 
being disregarded. 

The dealer with his partner's cards exposed has 
a compact force under his sole direction. The 
chance of defeating him by each adversary's carry- 
ing on a sort of guerrilla warfare, filching a trick 



H Badsworth on Bridge 



here and there, and not acting together for attack 
or for defence would seem to be exceedingly small. 

Union is strength and always will be, and a most 
incomprehensible reason for casting it aside is that 
the opposing forces have it; surely there is the 
greater need than ever for acting in combination. 

It is only when you are playing against the 
dealer that you can have any card conversation: 
if this is eliminated from the game, or confined to 
communicating a falsehood to the dealer, players 
are almost always reduced to one dead level, and 
the issue of the rubber rests with the cards ; intel- 
lectual pleasure disappears, and the game is con- 
verted into a beggar-my-neighbour scramble. 

Whether concealing your cards from your part- 
ner, or giving him all the information you can by 
every card you lead, or play, or discard, wins the 
most rubbers will be dealt with in detail in discuss- 
ing the play and the lead of the fourth-best card: 
only the general principle is now submitted for 
consideration that the best way to make the most 
of the twenty-six cards of a side is to get as near as 
possible to that union of the two hands with which 
the dealer starts, and which everybody admits to 
be a very great advantage to him. 

The advocates of separation in preference to 
union assert that the information you give is of 
more use to the dealer than to your partner ; some 



General Principles 



*5 



case is mentioned in which the dealer may gain 
from the disclosure you have made, and this is sup- 
posed by some players to settle the question with 
the aid of an illustrative hand : generalising from 
insufficient data is a common way of tumbling into 
error: all players know that the open game is 
sometimes detrimental to your interests, and to 
show a case or two when it is disadvantageous 
throws no light on the question. 

The point is not whether one particular dis- 
closure in a certain combination of cards may help 
the dealer but whether the sum total of gain from 
free intercourse with your partner is with your side 
or with the dealer : it is not clear how there can be 
any play at all of the combined hands, in the strict 
sense of the word, unless there is the fullest con- 
fidence and interchange of views and disclosure of 
what you have in your hand, between your partner 
and yourself. 

It is for each player to decide for himself from 
which style of game he will derive the most pleas- 
ure, and whether the primary object of the game 
is to be pleasure or profit : if the general view that 
the two necessarily go together were correct, no 
harm could possibly result from making a selec- 
tion; but if the pleasure is certain, and the profit 
problematical in certain phases of the game, surely 
it is better that the shouts of Throgmorton Street 



1 6 Badsworth on Bridge 



and the cries of the betting ring should not be 
allowed to silence the murmurs of pleasure in the 
card-rooms of the land. 

You must settle how you wish to learn the game 
if you don't know it : do you wish to have numbers 
attached to different cards and to add them up to 
see if they reach a certain figure to enable you to 
decide upon a declaration? Does the role of an 
automatic numerator stir your ambition, or gratify 
your aspirations? 

To adopt general principles, and to apply them 
to the different hands you get seems to be a more 
intelligent and enjoyable way of playing the game, 
and it is the soundest and surest way of becoming 
a good player : to look at a number of hands and 
to read what declaration somebody else would 
have made on them appears to be commencing at 
the wrong end, and to be mystifying and mislead- 
ing: it is quite another matter asking some one 
whose opinion you value what declaration he 
would have made on a hand that puzzled you: 
here you have yourself discovered a difficulty, and 
you are likely to remember both the difficulty and 
the solution. 

Do you wish to take a blackboard, and a piece 
of chalk into the card-room and convert it into a 
mathematical class-room? You can form a gen- 
eral idea of the relative trick-making value of a 



General Principles 



17 



king and a queen, without looking to the fraction 
which shows the exact difference between two- 
thirds and four-ninths. If you hold two aces it is 
sufficient to know that your partner is more likely 
to hold one of the other aces than not, and you need 
not puzzle yourself by enquiring whether it really 
is five to four on his holding one or both of them. 

The elaborate calculations, and the lengthy dis- 
quisitions about chances one sees in the news- 
papers are very discouraging until you know that 
they are really of no consequence ; it is practically 
impossible to play Bridge on the lines of Piquet ; 
if any one sat down to a Bridge table with a 
fraction of these calculations before him, he would 
soon be in the frame of mind of the mad arithme- 
tician endeavouring to ascertain by lunar observa- 
tion the distance between the lamp at Hyde Park 
Corner and the twenty-fifth of June. 

All that is wanted for practical purposes is to 

have a general idea of the chance of finding your 

partner with a particular card, and the view here 

put forward is that more pleasure is got from the 

game by not making a study of mathematical 

chances, and that play runs more quickly and 

smoothly, and quite as effectively without it. The 

degree of probability which you soon ascertain by 

your own observation is all that is wanted and is 

far more useful. 
2 



1 8 Badsworth on Bridge 



The next general principle contended for is that 
leads should be as simple as possible. At Whist 
there were upward of fifty different ways of lead- 
ing, and following, i. e., leading the second time 
from the suit. In the chapter on What Card to 
Lead there are only fifteen cases given, and with 
two or three exceptions all of them fall under the 
following general rule which is quite enough to 
start playing with: You should always lead the 
fourth-best card unless you have two or more 
honours in sequence, when you must lead the 
highest of them ; as you come across the few cases 
one by one where this general rule is violated, 
you should always discover the reason for it ; 
knowledge, acquired in this way, remains. 

To go through the wearisome drudgery of learn- 
ing a number of leads by heart, without seeing the 
why and the wherefore, is enough to turn you 
against the game, and you are not likely to remem- 
ber them all at the critical moment. If you find on 
emerging from the schoolroom that your spelling is 
not all that it might be, you don't sit down to learn 
a page of the dictionary every day, but you solve 
each doubt as it arises by a separate reference. 

Bridge has to be picked up in precisely the same 
way ; you cannot spring to the top of the ladder at 
a bound ; you must go up rung by rung. 

The next point is that the dealer should confine 



General Principles 



19 



himself entirely to attack on the vexed question of 
declaration; if he cannot declare a suit with the 
object of reaching or getting nearer to the goal, he 
should pass and give his partner the opportunity 
of attacking if he can ; a protective declaration is 
thus limited to the cases in which neither partner 
has the strength to declare an expensive suit. 

There appears to be less friction, and more 
pleasure, in this policy ; the vexation at missing a 
rubber with a strong hand in no trumps or hearts 
by being bound to a partner who cannot pass the 
declaration is far greater than the satisfaction of 
being saved a few points by his prudence or want 
of confidence in you, When an original protective 
declaration succeeds you gain so little ; when it fails 
you lose so much, 

The next point is that there is no objection to 
a multiplicity of what are called conventions, so 
long as the} 7 are not authoritative and obligatory ; 
players who like to ask for trumps can do so with- 
out causing any annoyance to those players who 
prefer a more limited range of conversation, and 
who are under no obligation to comply with the 
request; there seems to be no reason why the 
range of Bridge conversation should be limited by 
the capacity of the feeblest intellects. 

The next point is that knowledge, and not the 
want of it, must be the basis of every declaration, 



2o Badsworth on Bridge 



and of every act of play ; yet hardly a day passes 
without some one of apparent intelligence excusing 
a bad declaration on the ground that he did not 
know what his partner held, an obvious truism 
which it is silly to utter, or explaining a rash lead 
by saying that he would not have tried it if he 
had known where the king lay, when he could not 
possibly have known where the king was without 
looking at his adversaries' cards. 

The next point is that by reason of the greater 
amount of skill and play necessary for success 
there is more pleasure in establishing and bringing 
in a long suit, than in getting a ruff by leading a 
singleton; the latter is a far easier feat to ac- 
complish, and will attract players of modest am- 
bition who can derive any pleasure from always 
leading a short suit and ruffing it, without pausing 
to consider whether a trick is gained by the ruff 
or not. 

The next point is that every one should try to 
extend the area of pleasure for all the players ; so 
if you unfortunately happen to be one of the slow 
coaches of this world, you should try to cause as 
little annoyance as possible by your weakness. 
You cannot help diminishing the pleasure of others 
when you join a table at which the pace is beyond 
your powers, but if you are reminded that it is 
your turn to play, you need not aggravate the 



General Principles 



position by being tetchy and slower than usual 
and by looking three or four times at a two before 
you play it fourth hand to a trick you cannot 
win. A very slow player is out of touch with 
many a partner from the start, and loses a good 
deal by it. 

The general principles advocated in this treatise 
are that the primary object of the game should be 
pleasure, which is best attained 

1. By carrying on an intelligent conversation 

with your partner to enable a joint plan of 
attack or defence to be carried out. 

2. By the dealer's passing the declaration if he 

is not strong enough to attack, and leav- 
ing defence entirely to his partner. 

3. By general principles of play being adopted, 

and applied to the circumstances as they 
arise, and by not learning leads by heart, 
or declarations by the addition of arbi- 
trary numbers. 

4. By making no study of mathematical 

chances. 

5. By following the simplest and the fewest 

rules for leading. 

6. By observing as many conventions as you 

like, and by not objecting to those 
conventions you do not care to adopt 
yourself. 



Badsworth on Bridge 



7. By eschewing Shibboleths which only veil 

ignorance, and by making knowledge, and 
the inferences drawn from it the basis of 
all play. 

8. By not adopting the heart convention in 

doubling, which settles the question by 
rule of thumb and leaves no scope for the 
exercise of individual judgment. 

9. By establishing and bringing in a long suit , 

in preference to playing for a ruff. 

0. By mitigating as far as you can the annoy- 

ance of constitutional slowness. 

1. By not making the table a present of your 

opinion about the potentialities or the lost 
opportunities of a hand that is over. 



THE LAWS OF BRIDGE 



Adopted in England, July, 1895. 

Printed verbatim from the Club Code, by permission of 
Thos. De Le Rue & Co., Limited. 

Where any variation exists between the English and Ameri- 
can laws, such variation is indicated. For the text of the 
American laws the publishers are indebted to the courtesy of 
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, the publishers of Elwell's 
treatise on Bridge. 



THE RUBBER 

1. The Rubber is the best of three games. If 
the first two games be won by the same players, 
the third game is not played. 

SCORING 

2 . A game consists of thirty points obtained by 
tricks alone, exclusive of any points counted for 
Honours, Chicane, or Slam. 

3. Every hand is played out, and any points in 
excess of the thirty points necessary for the game 
are counted. 

23 



24 Badsworth on Bridge 



4. Each trick above six, counts two points when 
spades are trumps, four points when clubs are 
trumps, six points when diamonds are trumps, 
eight points when hearts are trumps, and twelve 
points when there are no trumps. 

5. Honours consist of ace, king, queen, knave, 
and ten of the trump suit. When there are no 
trumps they consist of the four aces. 

6. Honours in trumps are thus reckoned : — 

If a player and his partner conjointly hold — ■ 

I. The five honours of the trump suit, they 
score for honours five times the value of 
the trump suit trick. 
II. Any four honours of the trump suit, they 
score for honours four times the value of 
the trump suit trick. 
III. Any three honours of the trump suit, they 
score for honours twice the value of the 
trump suit trick. 

If a player in his own hand holds — 

I. The five honours of the trump suit, he and 
his partner score for honours ten times 
the value of the trump suit trick. 
II. Any four honours of the trump suit, they 
score for honours eight times the value 
of the trump suit trick. In this last case, 



The Laws of Bridge 



2 5 



if the player's partner holds the fifth 
honour, they also score for honours the 
single value of the trump suit trick. 

The value of the trump suit trick referred to 
in this law is its original value — e. g., two points 
in spades and six points in diamonds; and the 
value of Honours is in no way affected by any 
doubling or re-doubling that may take place under 
Laws 53-56. 

7. Honours, when there are no trumps, are 
thus reckoned : 

If a player and his partner conjointly hold — 

I. The four aces, they score for honours forty 
points. 

II. Any three aces, they score for honours thirty 
points. 

If a player in his own hand holds — 

The four aces, he and his partner score for hon- 
ours one hundred points. 

8. Chicane is thus reckoned: 

If a player holds no trump, he and his partner 
score for Chicane twice the value of the trump 
suit trick. The value of Chicane is in no way 
affected by any doubling or re-doubling that 
may take place under Laws 53—56. 



Badsworth on Bridge 



9. Slam is thus reckoned: — 

If a player and his partner make, independently 
of any tricks taken for the revoke penalty — 
[Amer. Law — or lead c:ti of t:in: penalty] — 

I. All thirteen tricks, they score for Grand 
Slam forty points. 
II. Twelve tricks, they score for Little Slam 
twenty points. 

10. Honours. Chicane, and Slam are reckoned in 
the score at the end of the rubber. 

11. At the end of the rubber, the total scores for 
tricks. Honours, Chicane, and Slam obtained by 
each player and his partner are added up, one 
hundred points are added to the score of the win- 
ners of the rubber, and the difference between the 
twe scores is the number of points won, or lost, by 
the winners of the rubber. 

12. If an erroneous score affecting tricks be 
proved, such mistake may be corrected prior to the 
conclusion of the game hi which it occurred, and 
such game is not concluded until the last card of 
the following deal has been dealt [Amer. Law — 
and the trump declared], or, in the case of the last 
game of the rubber, until the score has been made 
up and agreed. 

13. If an erroneous score affecting Honours, 
Chicane, or Slam be proved, such mistake may be 



The Laws of Bridge 



27 



corrected at any time before the score of the rub- 
ber has been made up and ag eed. 

CUTTING 

14. The ace is the lowest card. 

15. In all cases, every player must cut from the 
same pack. 

16. Should a player expose more than one card, 
he must cut again. 

FORMATION OF TABLE 

. 17. If there are more than four candidates, the 
players are selected by cutting, those first in the 
room having the preference. The four who cut 
the lowest cards play first, and again cut to decide 
on partners; the two lowest play against the two 
highest ; the lowest is the dealer, who has choice 
of cards and seats, and, having once made his 
selection, must abide by it. 

18. When there are more than six candidates, 
those who cut the two next lowest cards belong 
to the table, which is complete with six players; 
on the retirement of one of those six players, the 
candidate who cut the next lowest card has a prior 
right to any after-comer to enter the table. 

19. Two players cutting cards of equal value, 
unless such cards are the two highest, cut again; 



28 Badsworth on Bridge 



should they be the two lowest, a fresh cut is neces- 
sary to decide which of those two deals. 

20. Three players cutting cards of equal value 
cut again ; should the fourth (or remaining) card 
be the highest, the two lowest of the new cut are 
partners, the lower of those two the dealer; should 
the fourth card be the lowest, the two highest are 
partners, the original lowest the dealer. 

CUTTING OUT 

21. At the end of a rubber, should admission be 
claimed by any one, or by two candidates, he who 
has, or they who have, played a greater number of 
consecutive rubbers than the others is, or are, out ; 
but when all have played the same number, they 
must cut to decide upon the out-goers ; the highest 
are out. 

ENTRY AND RE-ENTRY 

22. A candidate wishing to enter a table must 
declare such intention prior to any of the players 
having cut a card, either for the purpose of com- 
mencing a fresh rubber or of cutting out. 

23. In the formation of fresh tables, those can- 
didates who have neither belonged to nor played at 
any other table have the prior right of entry ; the 
others decide their right of admission by cutting. 

24. Any one quitting a table prior to the con- 



The Laws of Bridge 29 



elusion of a rubber, may, with consent of the other 
three players, appoint a substitute in his absence 
during that rubber. 

25. A player cutting into one table, whilst be- 
longing to another, loses his right of re-entry into 
that latter [Amer. Law — unless by doing so he en- 
ables three candidates to form afresh table. In this 
event he may signify his intention of returning to 
his original table and his place at the new one can 
be filled], and takes his chance of cutting in, as 
if he were a fresh candidate. 

26. If any one break up a table, the remaining i 
players have the prior right to him of entry into 
any other; and should there not be sufficient 
vacancies at such other table to admit all those 
candidates, they settle their precedence by cutting. 

SHUFFLING 

27. The pack must neither be shuffled below the 
table nor so that the face of any card be seen. 

28. The pack must not be shuffled during the 
play of the hand. 

29. A pack, having been played with, must 
neither be shuffled by dealing it into packets, nor 
across the table. 

30. Each player has a right to shuffle, once only 
(except as provided by Law 33) prior to a deal, 
after a false cut, or when a new deal has occurred. 



30 



Badsworth on Bridge 



31. The dealer's partner must collect the cards 
for the ensuing deal, and has the first right to 
shuffle that pack. 

32. Each player, after shuffling, must place the 
cards, property collected and face downwards, to 
the left of the player about to deal. 

33. The dealer has always the right to shuffle 
last ; but should a card or cards be seen during his 
shuffling or whilst giving the pack to be cut, he 
may be compelled to re-shuffle. 

THE DEAL 

34. Each player deals in his turn; the order of 
dealing goes to the left. 

35. The player on the dealer's right cuts the 
pack, and, in dividing it, must not leave fewer than 
four cards in either packet ; if in cutting, or in 
replacing one of the two packets on the other, a 
card be exposed, or if there be any confusion of the 
cards, or a doubt as to the exact place in which the 
pack was divided, there must be a fresh cut, 

36. When a player, whose duty it is to cut, has 
once separated the pack, he cannot alter his inten- 
tion ; he can neither re-shuffle nor re-cut the cards. 

37. "When the pack is cut, should the dealer 
shuffle the cards, the pack must be cut again. 

38. The fifty-two cards shall be dealt face down- 



The Laws of Bridge 



3i 



wards. The deal is not completed until the last 
card has been dealt face downwards. 
[Amer. Law — There is no misdeal.] 

A NEW DEAL 

39. There must be a new deal — 

1. If, during a deal, or during the play of a 

hand, the pack be proved to be incorrect 
or imperfect. 

2. If any card be faced in the pack. 

3. Unless the cards are dealt into four packets, 

one at a time and in regular rotation, be- 
ginning at the player to the dealer's left. 

4. Should the last card not come in its regular 

order to the dealer. 

5. Should a player have more than thirteen 

cards, and any one or more of the others 
less than thirteen cards. 

6. Should the dealer deal two cards at once, or 

two cards to the same hand, and then deal 
a third; but if, prior to dealing that card, 
the dealer can, by altering the position of 
one card only, rectify such error, he may 
do so. 

7. Should the dealer omit to have the pack cut 

to him, and the adversaries discover the 
error prior to the last card being dealt , and 
before looking at their cards ; but not after 
having done so. 



32 Badsworth on Bridge 



40. If, whilst dealing, a card be exposed by 
either of the dealer's adversaries, the dealer may 
claim a new deal. A card similarly exposed by 
the dealer or his partner gives the same claim to 
each adversary [Amer. Law — to the eldest hand]. 
The claim may not be made by a player who has 
looked at any of his cards. If a new deal does not 
take place, the exposed card cannot be called, 

41. If, in dealing, one of the last cards be ex- 
posed, and the dealer completes the deal before 
there is reasonable time for his adversaries to 
decide as to a fresh deal, they do not thereby lose 
their privilege. [Amer. Law — before there is rea- 
sonable time for the eldest hand to decide as to a neze 
deal, the privilege is not thereby lost.] 

42. If a player, before he has dealt fifty-one 
cards, look at any card, his adversaries have a 
right to see it, and [Amer. Law — the eldest hand] 
may exact a new deal. 

43. If a player take into the hand dealt to 
him a card belonging to the other pack, the ad- 
versaries, on discovery of the error, may decide 
whether they will have a fresh deal or not. 

44. Should three players have their right num- 
ber of cards — the fourth have less than thirteen, 
and not discover such deficiency until he has 
played any of his cards, the deal stands good; 
should he [Amer. Law — not being dummy] have 



The Laws of Bridge 



33 



played, he is as answerable for any revoke he may 
have made as if the missing card, or cards, had 
been in his hand ; he may search the other pack 
for it, or them. 

45. If a pack, during or after a rubber, be 
proved incorrect or imperfect, such proof does not 
alter any past score, game, or rubber ; that hand in 
which the imperfection was detected is null and 
void; the dealer deals again. 

46. Any one dealing out of turn, or with the 
adversary's cards, may be stopped [Amer. Law — 
before the play of the first card] before the last card 
is dealt, after which the game must proceed as if 
no mistake had been made. 

47. A player can neither shuffle, cut, nor deal 
for his partner without the permission of his 
opponents. 

DECLARING TRUMPS 

48. The dealer, having examined his hand, has 
the option of declaring what suit shall be trumps, 
or whether the hand shall be played without 
trumps. If he exercise that option he shall do so 
by naming the suit, or by saying, "No trumps." 

49. If the dealer does not wish to exercise his 
option, he may pass it to his partner by saying, 
" I leave it to you, Partner," and his partner must 



34 



Badsworth on Bridge 



thereupon make the necessary declaration, in. the 
manner provided in the preceding law. 

50. If the dealer's partner make the declaration 
out of his turn, either of the adversaries [Amer. 
Law — the eldest hand may demand {1st), that 
the trump shall stand; or (2d), that there shall 
be a new deal] has the right, after looking at his 
hand, but before any declaration is made as to 
doubling or not doubling, to claim a fresh deal. He 
may not consult with his partner as to whether 
this penalty should be exacted or not. If any 
declaration as to doubling or not doubling shall 
have been made, or if no new deal is claimed, the 
declaration so wrongly made by the dealer's part- 
ner stands good. [Amer. Law — Should the dealer s 
partner pass the declaration to the dealer, it shall be 
the right of the eldest hand to claim a new deaL or 
to compel the offending player to declare the trump; 
provided that no declaration as to doubling has been 
made.] 

51. If either of the dealer's adversaries makes 
the declaration, the dealer may, after looking at 
his hand, either claim a fresh deal or proceed as if 
no such declaration had been made. 

52. A declaration once made cannot be altered, 
save as provided above. 



The Laws of Bridge 



35 



DOUBLING AND RE-DOUBLING 

53. The effect of doubling and re-doubling, and 
so on, is that the value of each trick above six is 
doubled, quadrupled, and so on. 

54. After the trump declaration has been made 
by the dealer or his partner, their adversaries have 
the right to double. The dealer's left-hand adver- 
sary has the first right. If he does not wish to 
double he shall say to his partner, " May I play?" 
His partner shall answer "Yes," or "I double." 

55. If either of their adversaries elect to double, 
the dealer and his partner have the right to re- 
double. The player who has made the trump 
declaration has the first right of re-doubling. 
The question " May I play ? " shall be addressed by 
the dealer's left-hand adversary (after a doubling 
by him or his partner) to the player who has made 
the trump declaration, who shall answer "I am 
satisfied," or " I re-double." If he answer " I am 
satisfied," the question shall then be addressed 
to his partner, who shall answer "Yes," or "I 
re-double." 

[Amer. Law — If the right-hand adversary of the 
dealer double before his partner has asked, u May I 
lead?' 1 the declarer of the trump shall have the right 
to say whether or not the double shall stand.] 

56. If the dealer or his partner elect to re- 
double, their adversaries have the right of re- 



36 



Badsworth on Bridge 



doubling again. The original doubler has the first 
right. The process of re-doubling may be con- 
tinued indefinitely, the first right to continue the 
re-doubling on behalf of a partnership being in 
that partner who last re-doubled on behalf of that 
partnership. When he expresses himself satisfied, 
the right to continue the re-doubling passes to his 
partner. 

[Amer. Law — If any player re-double out of turn, 
the adversary who last doubled shall decide whether 
or not the double shall stand. Any consultation 
between partners as to doubling or re-doubling will 
entitle the maker of the trump or the eldest hand, 
without consultation, to a new deal.] 

57. When the question ' k May I play?" has been 
finally answered in the affirmative, or when the 
dealer's left-hand adversary, being the last person 
who has the right to continue the re-doubling, ex- 
presses himself satisfied, the dealer's left-hand ad- 
versary shall lead a card. 

[Amer. Law — Should the eldest hand lead with- 
out asking permission of his partner, the maker of 
the trump may call a suit on the card originally led.] 

58. A declaration once made cannot be altered. 

DUMMY 

59. As soon as a card is led, the dealer's partner 
shall place his cards face upwards on the table, 



The Laws of Bridge 



37 



and the duty of playing the cards from that hand, 
which is called Dummy, and of claiming and en- 
forcing any penalties arising during the hand, shall 
devolve upon the dealer, unassisted by his partner. 

60. After exposing Dummy, the dealer's partner 
may indicate to the dealer the hand from which 
the dealer has to lead, or if the latter has led from 
the wrong hand, may draw attention to the error, 
in which case the dealer must lead from the right 
hand, unless the second hand has played, when the 
dealer is not entitled to rectify the error ; but the 
dealer's partner may take no other part in the play 
of the hand, other than the mechanical part of 
playing from Dummy any card named by the 
dealer. 

[Amer. Law — Should Dummy intimate to the 
dealer by word or gesture that he is about to lead 
from the wrong hand, it establishes the offence, and 
the penalty may be enforced.] 

61. The dealer's partner may ask if he (the 
dealer) has a card of the suit which he may have 
renounced; but if he call attention to any other 
incident in the play of the hand, in respect of 
which any penalty might be exacted, the fact that 
he has done so shall deprive the dealer of the right 
of exacting such penalty against his adversaries. 

62. If the dealer's partner, by touching a card, 
or otherwise, suggest the play of a card from 



38 Badsworth on Bridge 



Dummy, either of the adversaries may, but with- 
out consulting with his partner, call upon the 
dealer to play or not to play the card suggested. 

63. When the dealer draws a card, either from 
his own hand or from Dummy, such card is not 
considered as played until actually quitted. 

64. A card once played or named by the dealer 
as to be played from his own hand or from Dummy 
cannot be taken back, except to save a revoke, or 
as provided by Law 60. 

[Amer. Law — Should the dealer touch a card from 
the dummy hand, such card is considered as played 
unless the dealer in touching the card or cards 'says, 
"I arrange ," or words to that effect.} 

65. The dealer's partner may not look over his 
adversaries' hands, nor leave his seat for the pur- 
pose of watching his partner's play. 

66. Dummy is not liable to any penalty for a re- 
voke, as his adversaries see his cards. Should he 
revoke and the error not be discovered until the 
trick is turned and quitted, the trick stands good. 

67. Dummy being blind and deaf, his partner is 
not liable to any penalty for an error whence he can 
gain no advantage. Thus, he may expose some, 
or all of his cards, or may declare that he has the 
game, or trick, etc., without incurring any penalty ; 
but, having played a card from his own hand, he 
may not recall that card except to save a revoke. 



The Laws of Bridge 



39 



EXPOSED CARDS 

68. If after the deal has been completed, and 
before the trump declaration has been made, either 
the dealer or his partner expose a card from his 
hand, either of the adversaries [Amer. Law — the 
eldest hand] may, without consultation with his 
partner, claim a new deal. 

69. If after the deal has been completed, and 
before a card is led, any player shall expose a card, 
his partner shall forfeit any right to double or re- 
double which he would otherwise have been en- 
titled to exercise ; and in the case of a card being so 
exposed by the leader's partner, the dealer may, 
instead of calling the card, require the leader not 
to lead the suit of the exposed card. 

CARDS LIABLE TO BE CALLED 

70. All cards exposed by the dealer's adversaries 
are liable to be called, and must be left face up- 
wards on the table ; but a card is not an exposed 
card when dropped on the floor, or elsewhere below 
the table. 

71. The following are exposed cards: 

I. Two or more cards played at once. 
II. Any card dropped with its face upwards, or 
in any way exposed on or above the table, 
even though snatched up so quickly that 



4° Badsworth on Bridge 



no one can name it [Amer. Law — and 

every card so held by a player that his part- 
ner can see any portion of its face]. 

72. If either of the dealer's adversaries play to 
an imperfect trick the best card on the table, or 
lead one which is a winning card as against the 
dealer and his partner, and then lead again, with- 
out waiting for his partner to play, or play several 
such winning cards, one after the other, without 
waiting for his partner to play, the latter may be 
called on to win, if he can, the first or any other 
of those tricks, and the other cards thus im- 
properly played are exposed cards. 

73. If either of the dealer's adversaries throw his 
cards on the table face upwards, such cards are 
exposed, and liable to be called by the dealer 
[Amer. Law — if he has not indicated that the re- 
maining tricks are his]. 

74. If all the players throw their cards on the 
table face upwards, the hands are abandoned; and 
the score must be left as claimed and admitted. 
The hands may be examined for the purpose of 
establishing a revoke, but for no other purpose. 

75. A card detached from the rest of the hand 
of either of the dealer's adversaries, so as to be 
named, is liable to be called; but should the 
dealer name a wrong card, he is liable to have a 



The Laws of Bridge 



4i 



suit called when first he or his partner have the 
lead. 

76. If either of the dealer's adversaries, who has 
rendered himself liable to have the highest or 
lowest of a suit called, or to win or not to win a 
trick, fail to play as desired, though able to do so, 
or if when called on to lead one suit, lead another, 
having in his hand one or more cards of that suit 
demanded, he incurs the penalty of a revoke. 

77. If either of the dealer's adversaries lead out 
of turn, the dealer may call a suit from him or his 
partner when it is next the turn of either of them to 
lead, or may call the card erroneously led. 

78. If the dealer lead out of turn, either from his 
own hand or from Dummy, he incurs no penalty. 

[Amer. Law — One trick taken from the offending 
player and added to those of the adversaries shall be 
the penalty which may be exacted for as many leads 
out of turn as seen during the play of the deal with 
the exception of the lead to the thirteenth trick.] 

79. If any player lead out of turn, and the other 
three have followed him, the trick is complete, and 
the error cannot be rectified; but if only the 
second, or the second and third, have played to the 
false lead, their cards, on discovery of the mistake, 
are (subject to Rule 60) taken back ; and there is 
no penalty against anyone, excepting the original 
offender, and then only when he is one of the 



4 2 Badsworth on Bridge 



dealer's adversaries [Amer. Law — or if he be the 
dealer he may be penalised as in Law j8\ 

80. In no case can a player be compelled to play 
a card which would oblige him to revoke. 

81. The call of a card may be repeated until 
such card has been played. 

82 . If a player called on to lead a suit have none 
of it, the penalty is paid. 

CARDS PLAYED IN ERROR, OR NOT PLAYED TO 
A TRICK 

83. Should the third hand not have played, and 
the fourth play before his partner, the latter (not 
being Dummy or his partner) may be called on to 
win, or not to win, the trick [Amer. Law — or to play 
his highest or lowest card of the suit played.] 

84. If any one (not being Dummy) omit playing 
to a former trick, and such error be not discovered 
until he has played to the next, the adversaries 
may claim a new deal ; should they decide that the 
deal stand good, or should Dummy have omitted 
to play to a former trick, and such error be not 
discovered till he shall have played to the next, 
the surplus card at the end of the hand is con- 
sidered to have been played to the imperfect trick, 
but does not constitute a revoke therein. 

85. If any one play two cards to the same trick, 



The Laws of Bridge 

o 



43 



or mix a card with a trick to which it does not 
properly belong, and the mistake be not discovered 
until the hand is played out, he (not being Dummy) 
is answerable for all consequent revokes he may 
have made. If, during the play of the hand, the 
error be detected, the tricks may be counted face 
downwards, in order to ascertain whether there be 
among them a card too many : should this be the 
case they may be searched, and the card restored; 
the player (not being Dummy) is, however, liable 
for all revokes which he may have meanwhile 
made. 

THE REVOKE 

86. Is when a player (other than Dummy), 
holding one or more cards of the suit led, plays a 
card of a different suit. 

87. The penalty for a revoke — 

I. Is at the option of the adversaries, who, at 
the end of the hand, may, after consul- 
tation, either take three tricks from the 
revoking player and add them to their 
own — or deduct the value of three tricks 
from his score — or add the value of three 
tricks to their own score. 
[Amer. Law — Three tricks taken front the 
revoking player and added to those of the 
adversaries shall be the penalty for a re- 
voke.} 



44 



Badsworth on Bridge 



II. Can be claimed for as many revokes as 
occur during the hand; 

III. Is applicable only to the score of the hand 

[Amer. Law — score of the game] in which 
it occurs; 

IV. Cannot be divided — i. c, a player cannot 

add the value of one or two tricks to his 
own score and deduct the value of one or 
two from the revoking player. 
V. In whatever way the penalty may be en- 
forced, under no circumstances can the 
side revoking score Game, Grand Slam or 
Little Slam, that hand. Whatever their 
previous score may be, the side revoking 
cannot attain a higher score towards the 
game than twenty-eight. 

88. A revoke is established, if the trick in which 
it occur be turned and quitted — i. e., the hand re- 
moved from that trick after it has been turned face 
downwards on the table — or if either the revoking 
player or his partner, whether in his right turn or 
othenvise, lead or play to the following trick. 

89. A player may ask his partner whether he has 
not a card of the suit which he has renounced; 
should the question be asked before the trick is 
turned and quitted, subsequent turning and 
quitting does not establish the revoke, and the 
error may be corrected, unless the question be an- 



The Law s of Bridge 



45 



swered in the negative, or unless the revoking 
player or his partner have led or played to the 
following trick. 

90. At the end of the hand, the claimants of a 
revoke may search all the tricks. 

91. If a player discover his mistake in time to 
save a revoke, any player or players who have 
played after him may withdraw their cards and 
substitute others, and their cards withdrawn are 
not liable to be called. If the player in fault be 
one of the dealer's adversaries, the dealer may call 
the card thus played in error, or may require him 
to play his highest or lowest card to that trick in 
which he has renounced. 

[Amer. Law — If the player in fault be the dealer, 
the eldest hand may require him to play the highest 
or lowest card of the suit in which he has renounced, 
provided both adversaries of the dealer have played 
to the current trick; but this penalty cannot be 
exacted against the dealer when lie is fourth in hand, 
nor can it be exacted at all from Dummy.] 

92. If a revoke be claimed, and the accused 
player or his partner mix the cards before they 
have been sufficiently examined by the adversar- 
ies, the revoke is established. The mixing of the 
cards only renders the proof of a revoke difficult, 
but does not prevent the claim, and possible 
establishment, of the penalty. 



4 6 Badsworth on Bridge 



93. A revoke cannot be claimed after the cards 
have been cut for the following deal. 

94. If a revoke occur, be claimed and proved, 
bets on the odd trick, or on amount of score, must 
be decided by the actual state of the score after 
the penalty is paid. 

95. Should the players on both sides subject 
themselves to the penalty of one or more revokes, 
neither can win the game by that hand; each is 
punished at the discretion of his adversary. 

[Amer. Law — The revoke penalty may be claimed 
for as many revokes as occur during a hand, but the 
accumulated penalty shall in no event exceed thirteen 
tricks.] 

CALLING FOR NEW CARDS 

96. Any player (on paying for them) before, but 
not after, the pack be cut fcr the deal, may call for 
fresh cards. He must call for two new packs, of 
which the dealer takes his choice. 

GENERAL RULES 

97. Any one during the play of a trick, or after 
the four cards are played, and before, but not after, 
they are touched for the purpose of gathering them 
together, may demand that the cards be placed be- 
fore their respective players. 



The Laws of Bridge 47 



98. If either of the dealer's adversaries, prior to 
his partner playing, should call attention to the 
trick — either by saying that it is his, or by naming 
his card, or, without being required so to do, by 
drawing it towards him — the dealer may require 
that opponent's partner to play his highest or low- 
est of the suit then led, or to win or lose the trick. 

99. In all cases w r here a penalty has been in- 
curred, the offender is bound to give reasonable 
time for the decision of his adversaries [Amer. 
Law — but if a wrong penalty be demanded, none can 
be enforced.} 

100. If a bystander make any remark w T hich 
calls the attention of a player or players to an 
oversight affecting the score, he is liable to be 
called on, by the players only, to pay the stakes 
and all bets on that game or rubber. 

10 1. A bystander, by agreement among the 
players, may decide any question. 

102. A card or cards torn or marked must be 
either replaced by agreement, or new cards called 
at the expense of the table. 

103. Any player may demand to see the last 
trick turned, and no more. Under no circum- 
stances can more than eight cards be seen during 
the play of the hand — viz., the four cards on the 
table which have not been turned and quitted, and 
the last trick turned. 



48 Badsworth on Bridge 



[Amer. Law — Once a trick is complete, turned, and 
quitted, it must not be looked at {except under Law 
85) until the end of the hand.) 

[Amer. Law — There should not be any consulta- 
tion between partners as to the enforcement of penal- 
ties. If they do so consult, the penalty is paid. 

Should the partner of the player solely entitled to 
exact a penalty, suggest or demand the enforcement 
of it, such action shall be deemed a consultation and 
no penalty can be enforced. 

Should either of the dealer s adversaries during the 
play of a hand, make any unauthorized*reference to 
any incident of the play of a hand, or should he call 
his partner s attention to the fact that he is about to 
play or lead out of turn, the dealer may call a suit 
from the adversary whose turn it is next to lead.] 



ETIQUETTE OF BRIDGE 



The following rules belong to the established 
Etiquette of Bridge. They are not called laws, as 
it is difficult — in some cases impossible — to apply 
any penalty to their infraction, and the only re- 
medy is to cease to play with players who habitu- 
ally disregard them. 

It is to be borne in mind that, from the nature 
of the conditions under which the game is played, 
acts may be so done, and words so spoken, as to 
convey a very distinct intimation to a partner. 
To do so is to offend against the most important 
of the proprieties of the game. 

Declarations ought to be made in a simple 
manner — e. g., by saying, " I make hearts trumps " ; 
"There are no trumps" ; or, "I leave it to you." 
There ought to be neither intimation of doubt in, 
nor reason for, making this declaration. Nothing 
ought to be done or said by the declarant which 
may afford an indication or intimation of the hand 
which he holds, or draws attention to the state of 
the score. 

A player should avoid any unnecessary hesita- 



50 Badsworth on Bridge 



tion in passing the trump declaration to his part- 
ner, or giving any well-marked indication of doubt 
or perplexity. 

Similarly, a player who has the first right of 
doubling or re-doubling, on behalf of a partner- 
ship, ought not to decline to exercise that right, 
and so pass it to his partner, after any unnecessary 
hesitation, or after giving any well-marked indi- 
cation of doubt or perplexity. 

Any one, having the lead and one or more win- 
ning cards to play, should not draw a second card 
out of his hand until his partner has played to the 
first trick, such act being a distinct intimation that 
the former has played a winning card. 

A player who has looked at his cards ought not 
to give any indication by word or gesture as to the 
nature of his hand, or call the attention of his 
partner to the score of the game. 

A player who desires the cards to be placed, or 
who demands to see the last trick, should do it for 
his own information only, and not in order to in- 
vite the attention of his partner. 

No player should object to refer to a bystander 
who professes himself uninterested in the game, 
and able to decide a disputed question of facts; 
as to who played any particular card — whether 
honours were claimed though not scored, or vice 
versa — etc., etc. 



Etiquette of Bridge 



It is unfair to revoke purposely ; having made 
a revoke, a. player is not justified in making a 
second in order to conceal the first. 

Whilst, according to the law of the game, 
doubling and re-doubling may be continued in- 
definitely, such a practice may be attended with 
undesirable results — e. g., by involving a player in 
stakes which he never contemplated; 100 points 
is suggested as a reasonable limit. 



DUMMY BRIDGE 



There are no sanctioned rules for playing 
Dummy Bridge, which contravenes one of the first 
principles of the game, that the trump should be 
selected and not determined by accident; but 
when three Bridge players are waiting for a fourth 
they generally prefer Dummy Bridge, which is 
played by three players, to any other game. 

The player who cuts the lowest card plays 
Dummy and has the first deal ; he can declare if he 
chooses or pass the declaration to Dummy ; if he 
passes he replaces his own cards face downwards 
on the table, and then looks at Dummy's cards, 
but he does not show them ; they are not exposed 
on the table before a card is led. 

There is no choice of declaration when the 
dealer passes to Dummy ; if Dummy holds three 
aces, or four, the dealer must declare "no trump." 

If Dummy does not hold at least three aces the 
longest suit, or the strongest suit, or the most 
valuable suit must be declared. 

52 



Dummy Bridge 



53 



The suits have priority of claim to be declared 
trumps in the following order : 

1. The dealer must declare the suit of which 

Dummy has the greatest number of cards. 

2. If Dummy has the same number of cards in 

two or in three suits the pips on the cards 
must be counted (the ace counting eleven 
and each of the other four honours ten) 
and the suit with the greatest number of 
pips must be declared. 

3. If two or three suits are of equal length, and 

of equal strength reckoning by pips, the 
suit of the highest scoring value must be 
declared; hearts have the first claim, and 
spades the last. 
Either adversary can double and the dealer can 
re-double, although he may have seen his two 
hands ; but he may not look at his own hand again 
when he has passed the declaration. 

When Dummy's opponents deal, the player of 
Dummy must first look at the hand from which he 
has to lead, and he must decide without looking at 
his other hand whether he will double or not ; he 
must lead before he looks at the other hand. 

The player of Dummy loses his right to double 
if he looks at the hand which he has no right to see 
before a card is led. 

The player of Dummy looks at the cards in his 



54 Badsworth on Bridge 



own hand first even when he has dealt for his 
Dummy, and he makes the declaration or passes it 
just as he does on his own deal. 

Many players get confused about the hand to be 
first looked at, but it really is very simple : when 
the player of Dummy deals, either for himself or 
for his Dummy, he always looks first at the cards in 
his own hand ; when an opponent deals, the player 
of Dummy always looks first at the cards in the 
hand on the left of the dealer, from which the first 
card has to be led. 

When Dummy's opponents deal, as soon as the 
first card is led, two hands are exposed on the table, 
viz., the hand of the dealer's partner, as well as the 
Dummy's hand: every alternate hand is played 
Double Dummy. 

As there are no authoritative rules for Dummy 
Bridge, it is necessary that there should be a clear 
understanding about the rules before sitting down 
to play. 



CASES AND DECISIONS 



Case i 

The dealer says, "I make it no trump, " in- 
stantly adding, "I mean hearts." 

Is the declaration of no trump, though imme- 
diately corrected, final? 

Decision. — Hearts are trumps. 

Case 2 

The dealer says, ' k Diamonds, I mean hearts are 
trumps." The adversaries say, "You must make 
diamonds trumps," and they double diamonds and 
win the game. 

Are the adversaries justified in their action? 

Decision. — The dealer made a misnomer, and he 
should have been allowed to make the correction. 

Case 3 

May the declarant of a trump suit change his 
declaration if he does so before an adversary asks 
if he may play or announces that he doubles ? 

Decision. — No. 

55 



56 Badsworth on Bridge 



Note. — The law that a declaration once made can- 
not be altered is here distinctly upheld. 

The decisions in Cases i and 2 are based on the 
ground that no declaration within the meaning of the 
law was made before the prompt correction, as there 
was no intention to declare. Whether the declarant 
is speaking the truth or not is a question of fact which 
the players must always determine for themselves. 

Case 4 

The dealer's partner, without it being left to him, 
declares that he passes. The adversaries say that 
they are not obliged to claim a penalty till the 
dealer has declared a suit, and the dealer says they 
must claim the penalty before he declares. Which 
is right? 

Decision. — The adversaries must declare their 
wish to exact the penalty before the dealer makes 
his declaration. 

Case 5 

The dealer's partner in error passed to the 
dealer, who pointed out the mistake and said it 
was for him to d eclare ; after waiting ' ' a minute or 
so" the dealer called no trump, wdiereupon an 
adversary claimed a fresh deal, to which two 
objections were taken : 

(1) That the case did not fall within the letter, 
the spirit, or the mischief of the law, as the declara- 
tion of passing cannot be doubled. 



Cases and Decisions 



57 



(2) That if the right of claiming a fresh deal 
ever existed, it was lost by not being claimed at 
the proper time. 

Decision —A fresh deal can be claimed. 

Note. — This decision seems hard on the dealer who 
left ample time for a fresh deal to be claimed ; but the 
adversaries were probably under the impression that 
they had a right to hear trumps declared before de- 
termining whether to claim a fresh deal or not. 

Declaring to pass out of turn clearly falls within 
the mischief of Law 50, and the right of either 
adversary to claim a fresh deal is only extinguished 
by a declaration as to doubling or not doubling 
being made. 

When his partner declares, out of turn, that he 
passes, the dealer should ask if a fresh deal is 
claimed, and he is not bound to make a declaration 
until a reply in the negative has been given. 

Case 6 

Is it right or otherwise for the adversary on the 
right of the dealer to double before his partner 
says "I double," or, " Shall I play?" 

Decision. — There is no rule to prevent the 
player on the right of the dealer doubling before 
his partner speaks, but it is considered to be con- 
trary to etiquette to do so. 

If the dealer's right-hand adversary asks if he 



58 Badsworth on Bridge 



may play before his partner has spoken, is the 
latter thereby debarred from doubling? 

Decision. — No; these decisions apply also to 
subsequent re-doubles. 

After a double or re-double, if the wrong player 
first says kk Content," is his partner debarred from 
re-doubling ? 

Decision. — No. 

Note. — Doubling out of turn is an irregularity of not 
infrequent occurrence which has the incidental ad- 
vantage of preventing the fourth hand being uncon- 
sciously swayed to a decision to double by any hesita- 
tion on the part of his partner in asking if he may play. 

No doubt in strictness it is a breach of etiquette 
knowingly to transgress any law of the game, but as no 
penalty is attached to doubling out of turn, the rule 
would seem to be directory rather than mandatory. 

Case 7 

A leads the king of hearts, wins the trick, and 
turns it. He follows with the queen of hearts, 
which wins ; leaving the cards face upwards on the 
table, he leads the ace of hearts. Has an adversary 
the right to see the first trick won by the king of 
hearts ? 

Decision. — Yes ; A must show the trick. 
Amer. Law — No. 

Note. — The words of express enactment that any 
player may demand to see the last trick turned cannot 



Cases and Decisions 



59 



be nullified by an adversary prematurely placing on 
the table before the preceding trick has been turned 
and quitted, a card which the player has no right to 
see. 

Case 8 

The adversary cuts the pack to the dealer with- 
out his consent; i.e., without the dealer's pre- 
senting it to be cut. Is it too late to claim a 
revoke in the previous hand? 

Decision. — It is too late for the player who cut 
or for his partner to claim a revoke, but not too 
late for the adversaries. 

Note. — Here, as in the preceding case, the interpre- 
tation is in accordance with the spirit rather than with 
the letter of the law. The claim is held to be in time 
after the cards had been cut, because the cut was pre- 
mature and irregular. 

Case 9 

The 8 of hearts is led, and the second and 
third hands play smaller cards of the same suit. 
The fourth hand plays the knave of clubs, gathers 
the trick, and turns and quits it ; seeing the knave 
of hearts in his hand, he immediately calls atten- 
tion to the mistake. Was the revoke established 
by the trick being turned and quitted in error by 
a player who had no right to gather the trick? 

Decision, — Under the circumstances it is not a 
revoke. 



6o Badsworth on Bridge 



Note. — The reasonableness of allowing the player in 
fault to save the revoke seems open to question. If 
the sound principle of the ruling in Case 8 were fol- 
lowed it would be held that irregular turning and 
quitting establishes the revoke against the wrong-doer 
and his partner, but not against the adversaries. 

Case 10 

Dummy leads a spade, to which the dealer plays 
a club ; before the trick is turned the dealer says 
he has a spade. 

Can an adversary call upon him to play his 
highest spade ? 

Decision. — There is no penalty. 

Note. — Law 91 only allows the highest or lowest 
card to be called when the player in fault is one of the 
dealer's adversaries. The dealer often gains a great 
advantage by discovering the position of an important 
card through his own carelessness, for which it is un- 
fortunate there is no penalty. 

Case 11 

A led out of turn instead of B, and the dealer 
told him to leave the card on the table. B then 
led a spade, whereupon the dealer called upon him 
to lead a trump. B claimed that his lead of a 
spade was good on the ground that two penalties 
cannot be claimed for one fault. 



Cases and Decisions 



61 



Decision. — The question is not sufficiently ex- 
plicit to admit of decision. The act of drawing 
attention to the fact that the exposed card must 
lie on the table does not deprive the dealer of the 
.power of electing the penalty of calling a lead. On 
the other hand it is not stated whether sufficient 
time was left for the presumption that it was not 
intended to call a lead. 

Note. — To ask attention to the direction of Law 70 
that all exposed cards must be left face upwards on the 
table is not claiming a penalty, nor tantamount to an- 
nouncing an intention of not calling a lead. 

In these cases it is essential to know if a reasonable 
time was given for the call of a lead, and this is a 
question of fact which the players must always settle 
among themselves. 

To avoid the indeterminable question of what con- 
stitutes a reasonable time, the player whose turn it is 
to lead would act wisely in asking the dealer whether 
he wishes to call a suit or not. 

Case 12 

Is Dummy entitled to tell an adversary who has 
taken up an exposed card that he must leave it on 
the table ? 

Decision. — Xo. He is only entitled to ask if 
his partner has a card of the suit which he may 
have renounced. 



62 Badsvvorth on Bridge 



Case 13 

I am the Dummy, and seeing the opponents 
taking up one of my partner's tricks, I objected 
that it belonged to us. Am I entitled to do so? 

Decision. — Yes. You are entitled to do so. 

Note. — It will be seen from the next case that if a 
revoke is disclosed through Dummy having called 
attention to the error in gathering the trick no 
penalty can be exacted for the revoke. 

Case 14 

The dealer led the 8 of diamonds from Dummy's 
hand, to which an adversary who had renounced 
diamonds in the previous trick played the 10 of 
diamonds. The dealer in error gathered the trick, 
whereupon Dummy called attention to the fact 
that the adversary had won it. The dealer said, 
" Then it is a revoke." Can the penalty for the 
revoke be claimed after Dummy's remark? 

Decision. — Under Law 61 the dealer loses his 
right to the penalty of a revoke. 

Case 15 

An adversary of the dealer renounced in dia- 
monds, and replied in the negative when asked if 
he had one. Subsequently he said that he had a 
diamond. The dealer said that it was too late to 
save the revoke. 



Cases and Decisions 63 



On the diamond being played three tricks later 
Dummy said, " There is the missing diamond." Is 
the penalty cancelled by Dummy making this re- 
mark? 

Decision. — The revoke is cancelled under Law 
61. 

Case 16 

No trumps are declared ; one side score five by 
tricks and revoke ; the other side claim the value 
of three tricks. Can the revoking side score their 
sixty? 

Decision. — The revoking side cannot score their 
sixty, and cannot attain a higher score towards the 
game than 28. 

Note. — This decision disposes of the contention that 
when the adversaries have marked the game, no score 
recorded by the revoking player can properly be 
called a score towards the game, and that he is therefore 
entitled to score all they made towards the rubber 
total. 

Case 17 

The dealer led in error from Dummy's hand in- 
stead of his own, to which the second hand played. 
The dealer then claimed the right to replace the 
cards and lead from his own hand. Can he do so? 

Decision. — The second hand having played, the 
dealer is not entitled to rectify the error. 



64 Badsworth on Bridge 



Note. — The ambiguous wording of Law 60 made it 
arguable that its application was limited to cases when 
Dummy drew attention to the error; this case settles 
that an attempt by the dealer on his own initiative to 
correct the error falls under this law and not under 
Law 79. 

It is clearly an equitable decision, for the dealer 
often derives considerable advantage by carelessly 
leading from the wrong hand, for which he incurs no 
penalty; this advantage would be greatly increased if 
the second player followed with a card whose position 
it was important for the dealer to know, or if he dis- 
closes chicane in the suit. 

Case 18 

A deals and the game proceeds to the last two 
tricks, when it is discovered that an adversary has 
only one card: the missing card is found in the 
other pack and A admits that he could not have 
dealt it. Does the case fall under Law 44 or under 
Laws 39 and 45 ? 

Decision. — The case falls under Law 44, i. e., the 
deal stands. 

Case 19 

The dealer wins the seventh trick by trumping a 
diamond; he then shows the six cards remaining 
in his hand, but without detaching any of them, 
and says, "The rest are mine." 



Cases and Decisions 65 



An adversary throws down his cards saying, "I 
suppose they are"; but on seeing a diamond 
among the cards still held in the dealer's hand he 
claims a revoke. 

Dummy had gathered the seventh trick, but 
had not turned it. Is the revoke established? 

Decision. — The revoke is not established. The 
dealer can take back the trump and play his 
diamond. 

Case 20 

Score, love all. I make the odd trick in hearts, 
but a revoke is established against me. My ad- 
versary says, "I will take three from your score 
and add it to mine, i. e., we become 24 and you 
nil. ' ' 

I say "No; if you mark 24 my 8 remains good 
(trick scored), otherwise you are making a differ- 
ence to me of 32, deducting one trick and adding 
three." 

Who is right? and if my adversary is right, can 
you explain away the fact that it is evidently a 
double penalty ? 

Decision. — Your adversary worded his claim 
badly, but he evidently intended to take three of 
your tricks, making his score 9 tricks and leaving 
you with 4. Thus he scores 24 and you nil. 



66 Badsworth on Bridge 



Note. — This case has been quoted to dispose of a 
common error, that there is something in the nature 
of a double penalty when 32 points are lost by the 
revoke. 

The one and only penalty exacted by the adversary 
was taking three tricks from the revoking player and 
adding them to his own: the transfer of the odd trick 
from one side to the other necessarily carries with it 
the value of two tricks, as the loss of one seat at an 
election loses two votes on a division. 

Case 21 

A B love. Y Z, 24. 

A declares no trump ; he wins eight tricks and 
revokes. 

Y and Z determine to add the value of three 
tricks to their score and allow A B to score 24 
below. 

Is this correct ? 

Decision. — Yes. 

Note. — Tins is an amusing instance of the failure on 
the part of all the players to see that the transfer of the 
odd trick from one side to the other carries the value 
of two tricks with it. 

If Y Z had taken three tricks from A and added 
them to their own five tricks, they would have got 
two by cards 24, which would have made their score 
for the game 48 against love; but they elected to 
bring the case into court to establish a claim to mark 
(24 + 36) 60 against 24, by which they lost 12 points. 



Cases and Decisions 67 



Case 22 

At the end of the play of a hand it is discovered 
that Dummy has only one card left, while one 
of the dealer's adversaries has three, the other 
players having two each. Should the deal stand 
good or should there be a fresh deal? 

Decision. — There should be a fresh deal. 

Case 23 

A leads a small heart ; his partner Dummy has 
a single small heart. 

The fourth player covers with a winning heart 
before his partner or Dummy has played. 

Can A call upon the second player to win the 
trick, and if he has not got a heart must he 
trump ? 

Decision. — The second player must win the 
trick if he can. 

Case 24 

Which proposition is correct ? 

1 . That (except for the purpose of correcting an 
accidental revoke) a player cannot take back a 
card he has once played, such card whether " cov- 
ered" by the next player or not being held to be 
played beyond recall. 

2. That a player may take back a card he has 



68 Badsworth on Bridge 



played provided it has not been covered ; but that 
a card so taken back must be laid on the table as 
"exposed" and liable to be called by the oppo- 
nents; or, in other words. 

Revoke excluded, is an uncovered card irrevoca- 
bly played; or can it be taken back, subject to 
call? 

Decision. — Proposition No. i is correct. 
Case 25 

Does Law 42 apply only to the dealer, or to any 
player? that is to say, if a player other than the 
dealer look at any card before fifty-one cards have 
been dealt, have the adversaries a right to see it 
and to exact a new deal? 

Decision. — Law 42 applies only to the dealer. 

Case 26 

The dealer, during the play of the hand, claims 
a revoke from A. 

A replies, "I don't think that was my card." 

Dummy says, " It was your card." 

Has Dummy cancelled the revoke penalty? 

Decision. — Yes, by the strictest interpretation 
of law, but as a matter of fact, the penalty would 
not be enforced at the Portland Club. 



Cases and Decisions 69 



Case 27 

A took the eleventh trick; the dealer throws 
down his last two cards, the 10 and 7 of diamonds, 
making no claim and thinking he had lost them. 

A shows his cards, king and 9 of diamonds. 
The dealer says, "I can have one of these tricks 
because you cannot call my cards." 

A says, 4 'You abandoned your hand and can- 
not take it up again." 

If A is technically correct, is A too strict? or is 
it the ordinary club rule? 

Decision. — According to custom at the Portland 
Club A would point out to the dealer that he must 
make the 10 of diamonds. 

Note. — iVs the dealer is allowed by Law 67 to expose 
all his cards he does not abandon his hand by throwing 
them down without remark. 



THE SHACKLES OF SHIBBOLETHS 



Stereotyped phrases and catchwords which 
have outstripped their original application and 
outworn their ephemeral usefulness are a con- 
stant source of mischief and disaster; they have 
for a long time exercised a great power for evil, and 
their influence does not appear to be on the wane. 

The enervating influence of Shibboleths has cast 
its shadow over the Bridge table, and catchwords 
which were definitely applicable when they were 
first used at Whist are now reproduced at Bridge 
in different circumstances ; the harm they do is 
immense : they prevent players giving any original 
thought to the point supposed to be settled by 
them; and the false views enshrined in them, 
shrinking from discussion and review, cause the 
loss of many a game. 

The use of them contravenes the principle that 
knowledge, and not ignorance, should be the basis 
of every move of the game : Shibboleths veil ignor- 
ance and cloud issues; they do not contain, as is 
erroneously supposed, knowledge in a nutshell. 

70 



The Shackles of Shibboleths 71 



To retain the command of a suit is regarded as 
an heroic achievement in itself without any regard 
to the results which may flow from it ; the original 
advice was to keep the command of an adversary's 
suit, and rubber after rubber was lost at Whist by 
indifferent players holding up the ace of a plain 
suit to be trumped in the third round, through ap- 
plying the dictum literally; they failed to grasp 
that the advice was only to be followed when to 
part earlier with the ace involved greater possible 
less than having it ruffed. 

Many a convert to Bridge goes one better, and 
keeps the command of his partner's suit, if he sees 
that by doing so he can prevent Dummy making a 
trick in it. 

No good Bridge player, or any moderate player 
who thinks the question out for himself makes this 
suicidal blunder which is however very general; 
if your partner opens on a no trump declaration 
by the dealer with a small diamond, and Dummy 
lays down the king, 8, 2, and you hold the ace, 
knave, 4, you play the knave which wins the trick. 

The player who clings to his ace of diamonds in 
order to prevent Dummy making the king, and 
leads up to Dummy's weak suit for no reason but 
that it is a weak suit, may deprive his partner 
of his only card of re-entry, and may lose the 
game by it ; it is difficult to repress a smile when 



72 Badsworth on Bridge 



the man of Shibboleths gazes on the score sheet 
chronicling the ruin and says with an air of super- 
ior intelligence, ' k I thought it better, partner, to 
keep the command of the diamond suit." 

The misunderstood rule that you should not 
force your partner unless you are strong in trumps 
is a more dangerous pitfall than ever, and causes 
the loss of more games than any other Shibboleth. 

To give your partner a chance of making a 
small trump by a ruff if he chooses to do so, is net 
to force him; purposely to deprive him of this op- 
portunity without some distinct idea of the gain 
which will accrue to your side by neglecting to 
make a trick when you can, shows an irrational 
disregard of the primary object of play. 

When the object of a game is to win tricks, a 
player should have attained an acknowledged 
position in the first rank before he refuses to assist 
his partner in making a small trump ; and when 
he reaches this decision he should be prepared to 
show what advantage he expected from it, and 
how a couple of tricks or more could be gained by 
throwing this one away. 

If the players who are still bound in the tram- 
mels of these venerable sayings, instead of taking 
refuge in them, under the erroneous impression 
that they settle the question, would look to the 
why and the wherefore of their genesis, they 



The Shackles of Shibboleths 73 



would regard the problem from a different stand- 
point, and would cease to confuse the means to 
an end with the end itself. 

When your partner asks why you did not give 
him a ruff it would be quite as rational to say that 
"honesty is the best policy " or to repeat any other 
copybook maxim as to say, "I could not force 
you" ; both replies give your partner precisely the 
same information about the reason for your play. 

To draw two trumps for one is not necessarily 
advantageous; on the contrary, it is often the 
only way of losing a game by enabling an adver- 
sary to bring in a long suit. 

Throwing the lead, that is, leading a card you 
know an adversary can win to make him lead, is 
not a meritorious performance without some idea 
of what will follow ; you are in a position to lead a 
suit which your partner may want, and you are 
abandoning an opportunity of directing the cam- 
paign, and voluntarily transferring it to an oppo- 
nent. 

When you have a tenace which must be led up 
to, which puts you in a better position, or else led 
through which puts you in precisely the same posi- 
tion you would hold if you could put your partner 
in to lead the suit, the advantage of placing the 
lead with either adversary is obvious; but unless 
you can clearly see that the lead is advantageous to 



74 Badsworth on Bridge 



yourself, or unless you have good grounds -for 
thinking the lead will worry an adversary, to throw 
it is a speculative venture more likely to lead to 
loss than gain. 

Bridge players have a new Shibboleth, " To the 
score," on which blunder after blunder is im- 
properly laid, both in the declaration and in the 
play. 

When the adversaries are 24 a very light and 
expensive declaration is constantly made on what 
is called "To the score." The best declaration is 
one on which you may win the game and cannot 
lose it ; and the worst declaration is one on which 
you may easily lose the game, and are extremely 
unlikely to win it. 

So if ever the score should discourage a light no 
trump call, it is when the adversaries' score is 
from 18 to 24, and one trick takes them home, 
while they are not so near the goal as to make it 
in the highest degree probable that they will win 
the game with their next deal; 24 is not so dan- 
gerously near the end as many players seem to 
imagine, for a red suit cannot be declared without 
pronounced strength in it, as either opponent will 
double with an average hand. 

The player who at this state of the score calls 
a light no trump, and who says on losing the 
game, "Sorry, partner, I was foolish to go for a 



The Shackles of Shibboleths 75 



gamble," shows a correct appreciation of the 
position and of his own attitude with regard to it ; 
but the player who says, ' l Of course I only made 
it to the score" is a hopeless victim to the ban of 
Shibboleth. 

There is a story told of a wise counsellor who 
listened patiently to the prospect of the pleasures 
and joys of life which a friend on the threshold of 
manhood was unfolding to him, and as each new 
delight was mentioned merely asked, li et apres?" 

The many players who are bound in the tram- 
mels of Shibboleth can release themselves by using 
this simple remedy: let them lay hold of the 
maxim that he knoweth not the law who knoweth 
not the reason of the law, and before allowing a 
Shibboleth to determine any question of play, let 
them ask themselves, " et apresf" 

1. "I thought it best to keep the command of 
the diamond suit." Et apresf 

2. "I could not force you, partner." Et apresf 

3. "I must draw two trumps for one." Et 
apres ? 

4. ' ' 1 was obliged to throw the lead. ' ' Et apres f 



CONVENTIONS 



There are wide differences of opinion about 
what are called conventions; some clamour for 
fixed conventions with the stamp of authority, 
with a rule to fit every case, which would take 
all variety out of the game, and convert Bridge 
from an amusement into a study, from a pastime 
to a lesson ; every one who aspired to be a good 
player, or to be reckoned as one, would have to 
learn and observe these fixed and settled rules, 
and there would be a right and a wrong way of 
playing, so that arrogant players could take upon 
themselves to find fault with their partners and 
could cite the acknowledged authority which had 
been flouted, or disregarded. 

Others say that they hate conventions, and the 
fewer there are the better ; on pressing the ques- 
tion home it is generally found that they wish to 
limit them to the point which they have reached, 
and where they find themselves very much at their 
ease. 

Conventions are the undercurrent of the conver- 

76 



Conventions 



77 



sation of the game, and the more meaning there is 
in every utterance, the greater pleasure there is to 
those who understand and appreciate it. 

To return your partner's lead with the higher of 
two cards in your hand or the lowest of three is a 
convention ; to lead the king, with an ace, king, 
knave, in your hand, and to change the lead to 
get the finesse on the return is a convention; to 
discard the ace, if you have a quint major, so that 
your partner may lead that suit to you is a con- 
vention ; in fact it is impossible to have any play 
whatever in the strict sense of the word without 
having some conventional way of communicating 
to your partner so far as you can what cards you 
have and what you want him to do. 

The principal convention about which there is a 
wide difference of opinion is asking for trumps, by 
playing an unnecessarily high card when you are 
second, third, or fourth player; if you play the 
3 in the first round of a suit and the 2 in the 
second round, you are asking your partner to lead 
a trump ; you cannot ask for trumps by any card 
you lead yourself : to lead the 3 and then to play 
the 2 on the second round would not be asking for 
trumps, but would be telling your partner that 
you hold exactly five cards of that suit. 

In the early day of Bridge a few Whist players 
ran away with the idea that the power of doubling 



78 Badsworth on Bridge 



took away the reason for calling trumps as they 
considered, very erroneously as experience has 
proved, that if a player had a hand strong enough 
to justify him in calling for trumps, he was strong 
enough to double. 

A moment's reflection will show the foundation 
of this belief to be unsubstantial; in scores of 
hands that are constantly occurring you are only 
prevented from doubling by reason of your weak- 
ness in one suit which may be brought in against 
you ; if your partner opens with the king or queen 
of that suit you are in a position to call for trumps 
at once, if there is no warning note of danger in 
the exposed hand. 

There is, moreover, a most important difference 
between doubling and asking for trumps which 
does not appear to have secured the attention it 
deserves ; doubling is a two-edged weapon, equally 
dangerous to both sides, which all good players 
handle warily ; even an indisputably sound double 
may lead to rout and ruin, with an extraordinary 
disposition of overpowering strength against you, 
and no support from your partner. 

But a sound ask for trumps can never be other 
than advantageous ; a player with half the pack 
before his eyes will only ask for trumps when he 
knows that he will gain by it, no matter how the 
other half may be distributed between his partner 



Conventions 



79 



and the dealer ; the ask is a sword with one edge 
sharp and penetrating which can never be turned 
against its wielder, and is the safest weapon in 
the armoury of a Bridge player. My efforts to 
ascertain what the case against the call is have 
been singularly unsuccessful; one of the elderly 
Bridge players who denounced it from the first 
said to me the other day, with a look of benevolent 
toleration, "Oh! you call for trumps, do you? I 
don't!" Some reason against the call seemed to 
be within my grasp at last, but the disappointing 
reply to my eager query was, "They don't do it 
at the Turf." 

Last week an intelligent player asked me on our 
losing a rubber if it could have been saved ; on my 
saying it could not only have been saved, but we 
should have won it if he had asked for trumps, he 
said that he did not play the call for trumps. Once 
more a reason seemed to be within reach, and 
again there came a disappointing reply. "Well, 
so and so never plays it ; he gave me some excel- 
lent reasons which I 've forgotten, but I know he 
convinced me at the time." 

There is a great deal of power for good or ill in a 
word or a phrase, and the word "call" is an un- 
fortunate one, carrying with it some idea of a 
peremptory demand that your partner should 
abandon his game and submit to your dictation. 



8o Badsworth on Bridge 



This view, which received general acceptance at 
Whist, was emphasised and accentuated by the old 
story of a choleric colonel who told an erring sub- 
altern who had not led a trump to his call that 
there were only two reasons for not obeying his 
instructions, either not holding a trump or dying 
before he could play it. 

This obiter dictum of the anteroom was raised to 
the position of a decision in a leading case, and 
quoted with approval by many a Whist player 
whose partner failed to do what he wanted: the 
uncrowned kings of the card-room, as well as the 
charlatans of the table, are not entirely free from 
the spirit of the martinet; they expect the most 
rigid obedience to orders, improperly looking upon 
their partners as subalterns on duty, bound to do 
what they are told. 

And so a form of communicating a suggestion to 
your partner, which was introduced as a signal and 
was spoken of as hoisting the Blue Peter, was 
clothed in the language of offensive dictation ; the 
word signal had to be abandoned as indicative of 
an act inconsistent with fair play. Old players 
said if signalling for trumps was to be allowed, it 
would be easier and just as fair to kick your part- 
ner's foot, or to tap on the table. 

The call for trumps encountered the most vio- 
lent opposition on its introduction ; it was the 



Conventions 



81 



source of much unpleasantness at Whist from 
failure to notice it, or to act upon it, being fol- 
lowed by unwarrantable vituperation and unjusti- 
fiable censure ; it was the cause of much friction 
and considerable annoyance. 

For these reasons, which carry great weight, 
getting rid of a source of trouble and annoyance 
appeared likely to make Bridge more attractive ; 
and if the ask for trumps were allowed to assume 
at Bridge the improper position it held for so long 
at Whist, there can be but little doubt that the 
area of pleasure would be reduced by its general 
introduction. 

Asking for trumps is a preferable phrase to call- 
ing for them, but unfortunately the verb has not 
the handmaid of a monosyllabic noun; I have 
nevertheless met many courteous Whist players 
who never used the word "call," on account of its 
imperative tone, and who used to say to a partner 
who had failed to notice it, "You didn't see my 
ask" ; it is a useful word and may well be used. 

In advocating the advantage of being able to 
ask for trumps at Bridge, no claim whatever is 
made to put it on the same footing as a call for 
trumps at Whist; to do so would take away one 
of the game's greatest charms and go far to destroy 
its popularity ; there is fortunately no authorita- 
tive writer on Bridge who can make laws and 



82 Badsworth on Bridge 



regulations for the benefit of the few and to the 
worry of the many ; and if the game could be re- 
duced to an exact science, with a rule to fit every 
possible case, it would cease to be a game. 

To ask for trumps is merely to communicate to 
your partner your opinion that a lead of trumps 
from him will be advantageous to your side ; with 
this knowledge of your views, it is for him to de- 
cide whether he thinks other considerations to the 
contrary outweigh your wish ; he is under no ob- 
ligation of any kind to lead a trump unless he 
considers it advisable to do so. 

So in asking for trumps you do not put your 
partner under orders to lead one with no valid 
excuse for disobedience but chicane or dissolution ; 
you do not command him to give up what he thinks 
best, and merely lead a trump and leave every- 
thing to you ; you do not tell him that if he leads a 
trump you can reach the definite goal you have 
before you without any further assistance from 
him; you will not presume to lecture him, and 
you will not be rude enough to scold him, if on 
knowing your views he thinks it better to follow 
his own plan of attack or defence. 

It goes without saying that the necessity for 
calling for trumps arises much less frequently in 
Bridge than at Whist, as the trump is selected by 
an adversary ; but that seems to be a poor reason 



Conventions 



83 



for throwing an effective weapon away ; surely it 
is wiser to keep it for use when it is wanted. 

On the other hand there are many cases at 
Bridge when you are unable to lead a trump your- 
self, by holding a tenace for instance, and you are 
longing for your partner to do so ; but you know 
there is very little chance of his making what to 
him must be a leap in the dark, and if you never 
ask for trumps you are at a great disadvantage. 

Again there are many cases in which you are 
justified in telling your partner that you think it 
will be well for him to lead a trump, even though 
you are weak in the suit ; when Dummy on your 
left has declared hearts, holding six with a quart 
to the queen, and you are strong in the plain 
suits with the king and one other trump, it often 
happens that you can only prevent the dealer 
getting a ruff off by asking for trumps, which it 
was impossible for you to play on your blind lead, 
and which your partner is not likely to lead with- 
out an ask. 

When your partner doubles a spade, or when he 
doubles any other suit by which the adversaries 
win the game with one trick while you require two 
or more tricks to win, it is generally accepted that 
you should not open with a trump, unless your 
own hand justifies the lead. 

In these hands the ask for trumps is most useful 



84 Badsworth on Bridge 



and is constantly played ; it enables the doubler to 
communicate to his partner what he is dying to 
know. 

One objection to the ask is that it may lead to 
the loss of a trick in a plain suit, if you throw an 
honour to commence the call; e. g., your partner 
opens with the king of hearts ; with the knave and 
one small card in your hand you play the knave ; 
your partner, under the impression that you either 
hold the queen or else have no other heart, follows 
with a small card for the next trick, which is won 
cheaply by the adversaries. 

This seems to be a singularly small reason for 
deciding a large question ; if you and your partner 
play the ask for trumps, he will follow with the ace 
to see if you are asking or not, as the advantage of 
discovering whether you want a trump to be led is 
greater than the disadvantage of dropping your 
queen, and forcing you on the third round if you 
are not asking. 

For several years after the introduction of the 
call at Whist, it was accepted that you could not 
call with an honour, but this was found to lead so 
often to your being forced in the third trick of the 
game, that the limitation was abolished; and if 
you held the 2 and one higher card, whether it was 
the 3 or the queen, you played it to begin the call 
if you wanted a lead of trumps. 



Conventions 



85 



Players who mean to determine for themselves 
whether the ask for trumps is an advantage or not 
w T ill not be much helped to a decision by con- 
sidering this point, which is one of infinitesimal im- 
portance ; in no circumstances could it lead to the 
total abolition of asking for trumps ; it could only 
support the abandoned rule at Whist, that an 
honour was too high a card to ask with; this 
would be no reason for throwing away the power 
of asking for trumps with a lower card. 

The only substantial objection is that the signal 
for trumps, playing an unnecessarily high card, 
can be used to greater advantage in another way ; 
and this is a point which demands the fullest con- 
sideration. 

The other way is, to use the signal in order to 
show your partner that you only hold two of a suit 
he leads; e. g., he leads a king, on which you play 
the 3, he follows with the ace and you play the 
2; your partner knows that you can ruff the 
third round, which is often a piece of valuable in- 
formation to him; especially when Dummy has 
declared a strong trump, and to give the dealer a 
ruff may be very disadvantageous to your side. 

But the more the question is probed, the less 
value the information seems to have; if it is the 
first lead of the hand, and Dummy has declared 
a strong suit, it will probably be impossible to 



86 Badsworth on Bridge 



prevent the dealer getting the ruff if he wants to 
take it, and so it will generally be better to go on 
with the suit than to open another ; if the dealer 
has made the trump it will generally be advisable 
to persevere with the suit, either to force him or 
to give your partner the chance of getting a ruff. 

This disadvantage of opening a fresh suit is so 
great, that in an enormous majority of hands, the 
play would have been precisely the same without 
the two-card signal. 

It is claimed that the signal can be used much 
more frequently than the ask for trumps ; and this 
is so ; but to arrive at any true gauge of its value, 
the point to be ascertained is how often it is 
effectively used, how often the ruff is secured by 
hoisting the signal when it would have been lost 
without it. 

Many a player uses this convention on his part- 
ner's lead of a king, not only when he holds two, 
but also when he holds the queen and two others, 
in order to show that the suit can be persevered 
with; this seems to be mischievous and to neu- 
tralise all the advantage of the signal; to know 
that if you lead the third round of a suit, either the 
dealer or your partner has the queen and the other 
can ruff it, seems to leave you in precisely the same 
position you would have been in if the two-card 
signal has not been displayed for your guidance. 



Conventions 



87 



The two-card signal is very useful for saving a 
game when there is great strength against you — 
when hearts, for instance, are declared trumps 
with the score at love, and your partner, with no 
other trick in his hand, leads a king and an ace, 
and without the signal is doubtful whether to 
give you the chance of a ruff or to use the last 
lead he can have in that hand to lead through a 
tenace of Dummy. He wants you to get two 
tricks when his definite goal is to save the game, 
and in this position the knowledge that you can 
secure the third trick by a ruff is distinctly ad- 
vantageous. 

But nevertheless in a great majority of cases, 
even in this tight corner, to give you the chance of 
making a small trump will probably be the safest 
course for your partner to pursue; for leading a 
suit of which he holds nothing, through a tenace of 
Dummy, is a speculative venture which may lead 
to the adversaries' establishing a suit of great 
strength, and discarding all the cards of your suit 
before you have a chance of making a trick in it. 
There seems to be no valid reason why the players 
who consider it advantageous to keep the power of 
showing by this signal that they only hold two 
cards of a suit, should entirely throw away the 
power of asking for trumps, in the many cases 
when they are anxious for their partner to lead one. 



88 



Badsworth on Bridge 



There are numerous cases in which this can be 
done : your partner opens with a king, and you 
hold the 8, 5, and 3; you play the 5 to the first 
trick, the 8 to the second, and the 3 to the third 
trick; you certainly have not shown that you 
have only two cards of the suit, and the ask for, 
trumps is clear. 

On the leads of the adversaries to play an un- 
necessarily high card will be an ask for trumps. 

Discarding a higher card before a lower one will 
be an ask for trumps. 

Whenever you cannot possibly have more than 
two cards of a suit in your hand, playing the higher 
one first will be an ask for trumps. 

In a word, when you are not showing your part- 
ner that you have only two cards of his suit, play- 
ing an unnecessarily high card is an ask for trumps. 

It is unquestionably a complicated manoeuvre to 
use the same signal to ask for trumps in one hand 
and to show only two cards of a suit in another ; 
it is likely to lead to misapprehension and error, 
and is contrary to all the principles advocated in 
this treatise and it is not recommended ; all that 
is urged here is that players who decide to use the 
signal to show two cards need not deprive them- 
selves of the power of asking for trumps in cases 
where the signal cannot be misunderstood by a 
good player. 



Conventions 



89 



The opportunities of advantageously asking for 
trumps are much more numerous than is generally 
imagined, but if only two rubbers a month were 
turned from impending defeat to victory by an ask 
for trumps, two hundred and fifty pounds would 
be gained by it in a year at shilling points. 

So the card dilettante and the youth who has 
been bored from the days of his birth might pause 
to consider whether it is worth while to refuse an 
option that can be had for nothing on the ground * 
that it is not worth the bother as you want it so 
seldom. 

The power of asking for trumps is a distinct 
advantage which often changes the issue of a rub- 
ber; in my opinion it is better to keep the signal 
for this purpose, and not to use it to show two 
cards, and so deprive yourself of being able to call 
for trumps on your partner's original lead; if this 
plan is followed, playing an unnecessarily high 
card is always a sign of strength, and never of 
weakness, which is a preferable way of using one 
convention than to indicate both strength and 
weakness with it ; viz., to show four cards on your 
partner's lead with no trumps, and to show two 
cards only when there is a trump suit. 

It seems foolish to refrain from using it alto- 
gether, and no reason is urged against its double 
use except the Shibboleth that it is a pity to 



90 Badsworth on Bridge 



multiply conventions. So long as conventions are 
not authoritative and imperative, it is not clear 
who loses any pleasure by an increase in them, 
while it is obvious that the many players who use 
them find additional interest in the game. 

It may be urged too that it does not even fall 
under the ban of the Shibboleth about multiplying 
conventions, as the number of them remains just 
the same, whether you play a higher card before 
a lower to show that you hold only two cards of a 
suit, or to ask for a trump to be led. 

It is hoped that readers of this treatise may now 
be in a position to decide for themselves whether 
they will or will not play the ask for trumps, with- 
out being guided to their decision by any con- 
sideration as to why it is used at the Portland 
Club and not at the Turf Club, if such be the facts ; 
and statements that it is not used by good players, 
which caused me the utmost surprise, must be 
accepted with considerable reserve. 



THE LEAD OF THE FOURTH-BEST 

CARD 



The lead of the card which is fourth in rank, 
counting from the top, is interwoven with the 
question whether it is better to disclose all you 
can about the cards you hold to enable your part- 
ner to form some idea of what you want to do, 
and to see how he can assist you in your aim ; or 
whether it is better to conceal as much as you 
can so as to make it more difficult for the dealer 
to* thwart your efforts. 

The question was discussed for years at Whist, 
and thoroughly threshed out ; it was accepted by 
all players that the best way to make the most of 
the combined hands was for each player to give 
all the information he could to his partner, al- 
though two adversaries could also pick it up. 

The play of the cards is the same at Bridge as 
it was at Whist, with the alterations naturally 
flowing from the introduction of the variations 
of sometimes playing without a trump and of one 
hand always being exposed; but all the skill in 
playing cards to the best advantage so as to make 

91 



92 Badsworth on Bridge 



the most tricks with them has the same force and 
value : Establishing a tenace ; 

Getting rid of a high card to avoid spoiling your 
partner's tenace; 

Placing the lead when you have reason to be- 
lieve it is disadvantageous to an adversary to have 
it; 

Unblocking your partner's suit; 

Keeping the command of an adversary's suit, so 
long as you can do so without loss ; 

Playing in touch with your partner to bring in 
one long suit, and not attempting to establish two 
suits with the result of bringing in neither ; 

Asking for trumps when you know a lead of 
trumps will benefit your side ; 

Showing by your first discard the suit you do 
not wish to be led. 

All these points of play are as valuable as ever, 
though the opportunity for using some of them 
may be rarer. 

The malcontents claim that the best way to 
learn Bridge is to forget all these things, because 
each player sees twenty-six cards instead of thir- 
teen, and the trump has been chosen by an ad- 
versary; it would not help a barrister much to 
forget all he had learnt about Roman Law, but in 
these days of jerry-building, foundations are not 
thought much of. 



Lead of the Fourth-Best Card 93 



The dealer has what is admitted to be a very 
great advantage in knowing all the twenty-six 
cards of his side ; his strength lies in the union he 
is born with ; the logical deduction from this 
would seem to be, that the other side should do 
all in their power to get as near as possible to that 
perfect union ; they cannot hope to reach it in 
most games until six or seven tricks have been 
played, but this is the time when good play takes 
its toll in all cases where the fight is a close one ; 
and the partners are throughout acting in concert, 
arranging and carrying out in unison a joint plan 
of warfare. 

The averment that the information given by a 
player is of more advantage to the dealer than to 
his partner needs more support than bare assertion 
before it is entitled to a shadow of credence ; and 
many players refuse to adopt the lead of the 
fourth-best card under the impression that this is 
a disclosure which is of peculiar advantage to the 
dealer, by enabling him to stop a suit in the second, 
instead of the third, round. 

The dealer can only take advantage of this in- 
formation to stop a suit in the second round when 
he knows the leader has no card of re-entry in his 
hand ; it very rarely happens that the dealer can 
know this for certain when the second trick of a 
hand is being played, and he can of course never 



94 



Badsworth on Bridge 



know it unless he and Dummy hold all the re- 
maining aces. 

To take a case in illustration : The dealer declares 
no trump, and you have to lead. Your best suit is 
king, 9, 8, 7, 2 of diamonds, and you lead the 7. 

Dummy lays down ace, 5, 3 of diamonds. 
Your partner wins the first trick (7, 3, knave, 4) 
with the knave, and returns the queen, on which 
the dealer plays the 6. 

It is now your turn to play third hand to your 
partner's queen; you can see all the diamonds 
except the 10, which cannot be in your partner's 
hand as he won the first trick with the knave ; the 
10 is therefore marked in the dealer's hand. 

If you have not a possible card of re-entry in 
your hand you cannot make a single trick; the 
one chance of making two tricks in diamonds is 
for the dealer to allow the queen to win. The in- 
formation that you hold five cards cannot be of 
the least use to your partner, while it may possibly 
benefit the dealer by putting him in a more secure 
position to win the second trick ; in this case you 
must of course play the 8 of diamonds to the 
second trick to induce the dealer to hold up the 
ace under the impression that your partner has 
the 2 to play you in with ; it is the one small con- 
tribution of assistance you are able to give your 
partner in the play of the hand. 



Lead of the Fourth-Best Card 95 



When it is not clear whether the unseen card is 
with your partner or with the dealer, the strength 
of your suit must be shown, and if the dealer is 
sure that you cannot get in again he may gain one 
trick by your disclosure ; the four conditions under 
which you lose a trick by it are of very rare con- 
currence, viz. : 

1. The position of the unseen card being un- 

known when you play to the second trick. 

2. Your inability to win a trick. 

3. The dealer's early knowledge of that ina- 

bility. 

4. The ace and two other diamonds being in 

Dummy's hand; for you have not made 
the disclosure when the dealer plays o the 
second trick. 
The knowledge that you have three winning 
cards to make if you can get in often drives the 
dealer to take a finesse on the side where the 
chances are against its success ; in the illustrative 
case we are using, when Dummy wins the second 
trick with the ace of diamonds, the dealer's efforts 
are directed to preventing you from getting .in to 
make your three diamonds. 

So if Dummy has a long suit headed by the 
ace, knave, 10, the dealer will win the first trick 
with the king, and finesse the 10 in the second 
round, and your partner makes his queen. If the 



96 Badsworth on Bridge 



dealer were not hampered by the fear of letting 
you in, he would have led the knave from Dummy 
and taken the finesse against your partner, and not 
against you, for the queen is more likely to be 
among the eleven unknown cards in your part- 
ner's hand than among the eight unknown cards 
in yours ; in this way the trick gained by the dealer 
by winning the second round of diamonds is given 
back to you, and the result of the hand has not 
been affected. 

It is most dangerous for the dealer to win the 
second round of your suit merely because your 
partner has no more of it, and many more games 
are lost than won by the premature clearing of the 
suit. When it succeeds the dealer only gains one 
trick by it, which he often loses afterwards by be- 
ing obliged to take all the finesses against you; 
when it fails by reason of your having one card of 
re-entry, the loss to the dealer is two tricks if you 
led from five cards, and three tricks if you led 
from six crads. It must be sounder play to 
allow the leader to be stopped by his partner in 
the second round, and by an adversary in the 
third round. 

If you look at the hands in which the dealer 
wins a game by taking the second trick in your 
suit instead of waiting until the third round, it is 
interesting to transfer from your partner's hand to 



Lead of the Fourth-Best Card 97 



your hand a card of entry of whose position the 
dealer could haYe no knowledge ; you probably 
conYert it from a hand illustratiYe of the disad- 
Yantage of leading the fourth-best card, to a hand 
illustratiYe of the danger of clearing an adver- 
sary's suit at the second round, merely because his 
partner is exhausted. 

Unless there are high cards in sequence in a suit 
the fourth best is always led from four cards; 
always to lead it in similar conditions with five, 
six, or seYen cards in a suit, greatly simplifies the 
question of what card to lead, for there are cases in 
which the fourth best must be led from five or 
more cards for trick-making purposes, e. g., no 
player with king, knaYe, 9, 8, 3 in his hand would 
giYe his opponents the chance of winning the first 
trick with the 7. 

The fourth-best card affords the most protection 
and is the most adYantageous card to lead for 
trick-making purposes ; it also giYes the most in- 
formation about your hand which it is important 
your partner should haYe at the earliest possible 
moment ; it is the easiest and simplest lead for a 
beginner, and the most communicative and in- 
teresting lead for a good player. 

If you lead a 2 with five or six cards of a suit you 
disclose nothing about the number or the Yalue of 
the cards you hold ; you may haYe anything from 



98 Badsworth on Bridge 



four cards to the 7, to six cards headed by the 
ace, king, or to seven cards headed by the ace, 
queen. 

You have thrown away your first and it may 
be your only opportunity of telling your partner 
something about the help you can give him ; all 
he knows is that it is your best suit ; it may be you 
have no chance of getting a trick in it, it may be 
you can win five or six tricks if he returns the suit 
to you= 

When your partner wins a trick he has to decide 
immediately whether he will play for your suit or 
for his own, if he has one of any strength; he has 
no knowledge whatever to help him to a decision ; 
he can form no idea about the best course to adopt, 
for he has no means of guessing whether his suit 
is stronger than yours. 

There are many hands in which the question of 
whether your partner should play for his own suit 
or for yours rests entirely upon the number of 
cards you hold, e. g., you hold ace, queen, 3,2, and 
lead the 2 ; your partner plays the 10, which the 
dealer wins with the knave: the king is not in 
Dummy's hand. 

Your partner wins the next trick ; his best suit 
is king, knave, 10, 6, 2 ; if he knows you lead the 
fourth best the strength of your suit is shown to 
be four cards with not more than two honours, as 



Lead of the Fourth-Best Card 99 



you cannot hold the tierce major, and you possibly 
have no honour and no trick in it; in any case 
your partner's suit of five cards with three honours 
• must be stronger than yours, and he should there- 
fore play for it ; but if you do not lead the fourth 
best, and there is a chance of your having led 
from six cards to the ace, king, your partner may 
return your suit with the probable result of not 
making a trick in his own. 

This is the quagmire you put your partner in if 
you are not in the habit of leading the fourth-best 
card ; the dealer is not in any way embarrassed by 
your reticence ; his play in most cases will be just 
the same; he will open his longest suit and keep 
the command of your suit as long as he can. 

If, however, the fourth -best card is always led, 
the position is entirely different ; if you lead a 2 
your partner knows that you have only four 
cards of the suit; if you lead a 3, although the 
dealer might be concealing the 2 in the first 
round, your partner knows the possibility of your 
holding five cards, and the certainty of your not 
holding more ; if you lead a 4 he knows you may 
have six cards and cannot have more. 

AVhen higher cards are led clear information is 
conveyed about the high cards in your hand, as 
well as the number you have in the suit; if you 
lead an 8,^ and Dummy lays down knave, 10, 7, 



ioo Badsworth on Bridge 



your partner with two small cards in his hand 
knows that you hold two cards of the tierce major 
and the dealer only one ; if you have the ace the 
suit is established; should the dealer have the 
ace your partner's return of the suit enables you 
to clear it at once, even if the ace is held up on the 
second round. 

Your partner knows as soon as he sees the ex- 
posed hand that the adversaries may only get one 
trick in the suit, and that they cannot get more 
than two ; this knowledge is invaluable at the 
commencement of the hand: had you led the 2 
the dealer might be able for all your partner 
know T s to make four tricks in the suit. 

When a strong heart is declared by Dummy, 
and your best suit is queen, 9, 8, 3, 2 of diamonds, 
you lead the 3 ; Dummy lays down the knave, 10, 
and your partner holds ace, king, and two others ; 
your partner wins the first trick with the king, 
and leads the ace, on which you play the 2 . 

If Dummy has a hand it is awkward to lead up 
to, the best game might be to go on with the suit 
and force him to ruff and to open a suit ; and if 
your partner were in doubt whether you had four 
or five cards in the suit, he might lead it again 
with the result of giving the dealer a ruff and 
Dummy a discard ; this would also give the dealer 
a lead which he might otherwise have had diffi- 



Lead of the Fourth-Best Card 101 



culty in getting, and enable him to lead a trump 
through you and to bring off a successful finesse. 

When you play the 2 on the second round your 
partner knows that you have either five cards or 
two, and he will not run the risk of letting the 
dealer make a small trump when you cannot bring 
off a ruff even if you were playing for one ; there 
is no more ruinous game than giving the weak 
hand a ruff and a lead and the strong hand a dis- 
card ; but this is constantly brought about by 
players who lead a 2 from five or six cards. 

But when a player of the fourth-best card leads 
the 2, his partner knows that he has only four 
cards in the suit, and the dealer three cards, and 
Dummy can be forced without any risk. 

The contention that the dealer gains more than 
your partner by the lead of the fourth-best card 
does not appear to be sound; the dealer cannot 
prevent your partner deciding whether he will 
play for his own suit or for yours ; should he de- 
cide to play for your suit the dealer cannot prevent 
him counting how many tricks you may have in it, 
and gathering whether he must play to get one 
trick or to get two tricks with his own cards to 
save the game. 

No-trump hands, in which the dealer can get 
every trick after the suit the leader opens with 
is exhausted, are seen every day, and the issue of 



102 



Badsworth on Bridge 



the game depends in that hand upon whether the 
adversaries can win the first five tricks or not. 

The lead of the fourth-best card often enables 
five tricks to be made when only four would have 
been won if the lowest card had been led: 

The leader has ace, 10, 8, 7, 5. 

Dummy lays down queen, 6, 3, 2. 

The leader's partner has king, knave, 9, 4. 

First trick, 7.2,4, and a discard by the dealer. 

The leader's partner knows that there are only 
(11-7) four higher cards than the 7 in the other 
three hands (See " Eleven : A Ready Reckoner ") ; 
he has three higher cards and Dummy one, and 
so the 7 is good against the dealer, and is passed 
up to win. 

Second trick, 5, 3, 9, o. 

Third trick, king, o, 8, 6. 

Fourth trick, knave, o. ace, queen. 

Fifth trick, 10. 
The first five tricks are won in this suit and the 
game is saved. 

If the dealer had led the 5 instead of the 7, his 
partner would have won the first trick with the 
knave and returned the 4, which the leader would 
have won with the ace ; the 9 and king would have 
won the next two tricks ; the leader would have 
been left with the fifth heart, which he could 
never make, and the game would have been lost. 



Lead of the Fourth-Best Card 103 



The stoutest opponent of the fourth-best card 
can scarcely have the hardihood to say in this 
case that the information conveyed by leading it 
is of more use to the dealer than to his adversaries. 

An additional trick is constantly got by leading 
the fourth-best card when the dealer who does 
not play it and does not notice it neglects to cover 
from Dummy's hand a card which he cannot beat 
himself ; the gain of the trick in these cases is of 
course due to the dealer's bad play, but still a 
lead which often gets an extra trick should not be 
lightly thrown aside, for bad play in these little 
niceties of Bridge is not very exceptional. 

But there are cases of daily occurrence in which 
the dealer is powerless to counteract the advan- 
tages his adversaries get from this lead, even when 
he is not himself void in the suit. 

You have the lead with 

Queen, 10, 9, 8, 3 of hearts and an entry card; 

Dummy lays down king, 7, 2 ; 

Your partner has ace, knave, 6. 
You lead the 8, Dummy plays the 2 ; your partner 
knows there are only (11-8) three higher cards 
than the 8, among the other three players, of 
which he has two in his own hand, and Dummy 
one; the 8 is therefore good against the dealer, 
and your partner plays the 6, letting the 8 win the 
first trick, 



io4 Badsworth on Bridge 



Your partner wins the second trick with the 
knave, and then plays the ace, under which 
the king drops, and when you get in you make 
the queen and 10 of hearts, and get five tricks 
in the suit ; had you led the 3 at the first trick 
your partner must have played the knave and 
Dummy's king would have made, leaving you 
only four tricks in the suit. 

The claims of the fourth-best card are based 
upon the protection it gives, the extra tricks won 
by leading it, and the information it affords, com- 
bined with the utmost attainable simplicity in a 
rule for leading from suits of four, or five, or six, or 
seven, or eight cards. 



ELEVEN: A READY RECKONER 



Conventions are regarded by many players 
as unwholesome excrescences of the game to be 
avoided in all circumstances; to apply the word 
to any development of play is to condemn it; an 
amusing instance of the misuse of the word was 
lately given by a player who asked his partner if 
he used the ' k Eleven Convention." 

The partner promptly asked what it was, and 
found, as he expected, that his interrogator knew 
nothing at all about it. 

It is merely a quick method of calculating from 
the number of pips on the card led by your part- 
ner how many higher cards of that suit your ad- 
versaries have between them. 

The way in which you choose to do your mental 
arithmetic is not a matter of arbitrary custom, nor 
do you care about any one's concurrence in your 
method ; it is a question with which your partner 
need not concern himself ; so there is not the sem- 
blance of a convention about the eleven rule. 

Eleven is neither a mystic figure nor an arbi- 

105 



io6 Badsworth on Bridge 



trary number ; it is reached by the simple process 
of addition and subtraction. 

There are thirteen cards in a suit, and the card 
of lowest value has two pips on it. 

The court cards have only two pips on them to 
show the suit, but their rank is not indicated, as 
in the case of the nine lower cards, by the number 
of pips on them ; if the process of marking their 
value by pips had been continued, there would 
have been n on the knave. 12 on the queen, 13 on 
the king, and 14 on the ace. 

If a 6 of diamonds is led by your partner, 
you know that he has three higher cards; there 
are two ways of finding out the number of the 
higher cards held by the adversaries. 

There are eight cards of more value than the 6 : 
your partner holds three, leaving five for the other 
three players: here the counting is done from 14, 
the pip value of the ace. The other way of 
reckoning, which is called the eleven rule, is to de- 
duct three, the number of higher cards your part- 
ner always holds, from fourteen, the pip value 
of the ace ; so you get 11, as a fixed number in all 
cases, from which to deduct the number of pips on 
the card your partner leads ; the difference be- 
tween them shows the number of higher cards dis- 
tributed between you and your adversaries ; when 
a 6 is led, you have five higher cards between you. 



Eleven : A Ready Reckoner 107 



This quick reckoning — it is not really reckoning, 
for you see it at a glance without any calculation- 
is more useful at Bridge than it was at Whist: 
your partner leads a 6 and you hold the queen 
and 10; before Dummy's cards are on the table 
you know the dealer and Dummy have three 
higher cards between them ; and immediately the 
cards are down you see before you play whether 
the dealer has any higher card, or whether he has 
one, two, or three higher cards. At Whist you 
only knew how many higher cards your adver- 
saries held, but not how the number was divided 
between them. 

A signal instance of the advantage of this ready 
reckoner was the following: The 6 of diamonds 
was led on a no-trump hand; the leader's partner, 
holding the ace, king, 9, and 2, knew the ad- 
versaries held only two higher cards between 
them; Dummy laid down the queen, 8, 4, 3, 
showing at a glance that the dealer could not 
beat the 6. 

The 3 was drawn from the Dummy and al- 
most simultaneously the 2 was played under it, 
and the first four tricks were won in the diamond 
suit; as the dealer played the 5 and saw the 
6 win the first trick, he said pleasantly to his 
right-hand adversary, "You did that sum very 
quickly." 



io8 Badsworth on Bridge 



There had been no sum to do ; if there had been 
the dealer could have done it as quickly as any 
living man; his knowledge of figures is of the 
highest order, but he did not know the market as 
well as his opponent. 

The players who will not lead the fourth-best 
card, and use this ready reckoner, may at least 
protect themselves in some measure by laying hold 
of this fact: whenever a card is led which the 
dealer cannot beat, the leader's partner is well 
aware of the fact, and will pass the card up unless 
Dummy heads it, 

Although an instance has been given in which 
this mode of reckoning was useful in a lead from 
four cards, the advantage derived from it is in- 
considerable unless the lead of the fourth-best card 
is always adopted. 



PLAYING AN UNNECESSARILY 
HIGH CARD 



This is one of the most varied and useful means 
of conveying information in the whole of the 
Bridge language ; it can be used — 

1 . To ask your partner to lead a trump ; 

2. To tell your partner you have only two cards 

of a suit he has led ; 

3. To show you have four cards of a suit your 

partner has led in a no-trump hand ; 

4. To show four trumps on your partner's lead 

of the suit, or on his asking for trumps ; 

5. To show your strong suit in a no-trump hand 

when you are compelled to discard from it ; 

6. To change a request made by your original 

discard ; 

7. To show in a suit led by the adversaries that 

you held four cards of the suit your partner 

originally led. 
The first two cases are fully examined in the chap- 
ter on "Conventions." 

In the third case it is a great advantage to show 



I IO 



Badsworth on Bridge 



your partner in a no-trump hand that you have 
four cards of his suit, as he can see at once when it 
clears ; to show four cards and at the same time to 
unblock, you must play the second-best card to the 
first trick, and the third-best card to the second 
trick, e. g., with 10, 9, 7, 2, you play the 9 to the 
first trick, the 7 to the second trick, and the 10 to 
the third trick ; you must always keep the lowest 
card in your hand to the last, when you never block 
your partner if it is possible to avoid doing so. 

In order to show that you hold four trumps on 
your partner's lead of the suit, when you are not 
obliged to head the trick, you should play your 
lowest card but one to the first trick and your 
lowest card to the second trick ; your partner sees 
you have four trumps and he will not lead a third 
round if the adversaries are exhausted: if your 
partner asks for trumps, and you can win a trick 
by ruffing, you should ruff with the lowest but one 
and lead the highest of the three remaining cards 
in accordance with the rules for leading; when 
your lowest trump is played on the second round, 
your partner sees that you ruffed with an unneces- 
sarily high card, and he knows that you have a 
fourth trump. 

The fourth and fifth cases are dealt with in the 
chapter on discarding: the main point to be 
grasped is that whenever your partner plays an 



Playing an Unnecessarily High Card 1 1 1 



unnecessarily high card he is leaving the beaten 
track, and endeavouring to communicate some- 
thing to you, and you should try to find out what 
it is. 

The latest development in communicating to a 
partner that you hold four cards of his suit, is by 
playing an unnecessarily high card in a suit subse- 
quently led by the adversaries, when you have 
been unable to show it on your partner's lead. 

The hand in which this was first played by mo- 
mentary inspiration, and not as the result of any 
calculation or theorising, was as follows : 

The original leader had the ace, queen, 8, 6, 5 of 
hearts, and led the 6. 

Dummy laid down the 9, 7. 

The leader's partner held the 10, 4, 3, 2, and 
played the 10, which the dealer won with the 
knave. 

The dealer led out the ace and king of clubs, on 
which the leader's partner played the 8 to the first 
trick, and the 4 to the second trick; the leader 
won the next trick with the queen of clubs, and 
he knew that his partner was trying to tell him 
something by playing an unnecessarily high club ; 
he could not possibly be showing four clubs, and 
the leader promptly concluded that there was 
nothing else he could be trying to tell him but that 
he had four hearts ; this showed the king to be 



112 



Badsworth on Bridge 



unguarded in the dealer's hand ; so the ace was led, 
under which the king dropped and the queen, 8, 5 
of diamonds brought them to the coveted fifth 
trick, and saved the game. 

The opportunities of giving this information are 
of constant occurrence, and it is a simple, useful, 
and remunerative signal ; the players w T ho like the 
conversation of the game to stop at the point they 
have themselves reached, will of course bring for- 
ward the usual objection that all these complica- 
tions spoil the game by making it difficult. Why ? 
The players who do not care to use this expansion 
of an accepted signal can leave it alone, while those 
who enjoy a light touch of suggestions in conversa- 
tion will get more pleasure and profit from the 
game. 



THE DISCARD 



The general rule is that the first discard should 
be from your weak suit, which you do not want 
your partner to lead to you: this rule equally 
applies when there are trumps and when there are 
no trumps. • 

If you cannot get another discard to show the 
second suit you do not want before your partner 
has to lead to you, all he knows is that you do not 
wish him to lead the suit you discarded from ; un- 
less Dummy's cards give some clear information, 
he is in doubt which of the other suits to lead. 

To get rid of this difficulty some players urge 
that the first discard should be from your strong 
suit ; this has the signal advantage of telling your 
partner at once what you want, and of preventing 
the possibility of his making a wrong choice ; in 
many no-trump hands this is a question of vital 
importance, for the issue of the game often hangs 
upon your partner at once leading the suit you 
want. 

But in a large majority of hands you cannot 

8 

113 



H4 



Badsworth on Bridge 



afford to weaken the suit which you wish to be led 
to you, by discarding from it ; the card you have 
to throw would often win a trick, and the loss of 
that trick might constantly make the difference 
between saving the game and losing it ; it does not 
pay in most cases to throw away a trick to get a 
suit led. The one and only objection is that a dis- 
card of this character is too expensive, and this is 
held by most good players to settle the question 
conclusively. 

The discard is far more difficult at Bridge than 
at Whist owing to your constantly being obliged to 
keep sufficient guards to a queen, or a knave, or 
even to a 10, to prevent a long suit being brought 
in against you. 

So it often happens that you are obliged to dis- 
card from your strong suit ; when a trump is de- 
clared there is nothing to be clone but to throw 
away the lowest of your strong suit : but when 
there is no trump you should first discard the 
lowest card but one. and then the lowest card; in 
this way you ask your partner to lead the suit to 
you. As there is no trump to ask for. your re- 
quest cannot be misunderstood. 

This convention, which is generally accepted, is 
very useful in the cases when you know you will 
not get a second discard before your partner has to 
trv for your suit ; it enables you to show your 



The Discard 



suit by discarding one high card in it; e. g., you 
hold the ace, king, knave, 10, 7, and Dummy on 
your left has either two or three small diamonds, 
or the queen singly guarded. 

You see that you can make three or four tricks 
in the suit if you can get it led at once, and so 
you discard the knave of diamonds ; your partner 
knows when you are short in one suit that the 
knave is not likely to be your lowest card in a 
second suit; you are asking for a diamond to be 
led and you will get it. 

The use of this convention, or the information 
given by the exposed hand, often shows your 
partner the suit you want; so the balance of 
advantage is held to rest with always discarding 
first from your weakest suit, in preference to weak- 
ening your strong suit by throwing a card which 
might win a trick if you kept it. 

This convention also enables you to alter a re- 
quest made by your original discard ; the develop- 
ments of the game as it advances often show that 
you can only make one trick which is jeopardised 
unless your partner leads you the suit before the 
adversaries get in ; if, for instance, you have the 
ace of clubs in your hand and the king of diamonds 
guarded, with the ace of diamonds exposed on 
your right, in an early stage of the game you may 
ask for a diamond to be led through Dummy with 



1 1 6 Badsworth on Bridge 



the reasonable expectation of making the king of 
diamonds, as well as the ace of clubs. 

But if your partner is bringing in a long suit of 
hearts on which the dealer with a long suit of 
spades established is throwing clubs, you may 
never make the ace of clubs unless your partner 
leads the suit directly his hearts are exhausted ; 
so you discard a high club, and then a lower one, 
by which you say to your partner, "I withdraw 
my request for a diamond, and I now ask you to 
lead a club." 

This is not really a new convention, but only an 
extension of a signal which was long used at Whist : 
a player with ace, king, queen, knave of a suit he 
was driven to discard from, used to throw the ace 
to show that he wished his partner to lead the suit ; 
and the very men who used this convention for a 
generation or more say that it makes Bridge a 
complicated game to prefer the same request by 
playing a 3 before a 2 ; a shout is right, a 
whisper wrong. 

There is great advantage in a protective discard 
which has not obtained the recognition it deserves ; 
if Dummy on your left holds the ace, knave, 6, 3 
of hearts in a no-trump hand, and you have two 
small hearts, you must not discard a heart, and 
show the dealer on which side he should take the 
finesse ; of course if your partner has the king, he 



The Discard 



117 



must make it, but if he has the queen and the 
dealer has the king, 10, your discard may induce 
the dealer to take the finesse against your partner, 
and not against you, with the result of losing what 
may be a very important trick. 

When an adversary is playing out a long suit, 
and you see you will have two or three discards be- 
fore he branches, you should decide before you 
throw the first card whether the position requires 
you to show your suit or to conceal it. In trying 
to deceive an adversary you must always remem- 
ber that he does not place implicit reliance on your 
veracity in Bridge conversation. 

On the other hand, if your partner never knows 
whether you are telling the truth or not, it is im- 
possible for him to know what to do when he finds 
himself in a tight corner. A false discard should 
never be made, unless you have reason to believe 
that your partner cannot win another trick, and 
that you have to save the position without any 
assistance. 

It is very difficult to draw correct inferences 
from a discard, as it is so hard to distinguish be- 
tween a compulsory and an optional one. It is 
unwise to embarrass your partner by any unneces- 
sary addition to this unavoidable difficulty. 



FORCING 



Good Whist players who laid down an axiom 
for the discomfiture of inferior players — that you 
should not force your partner if you are weak in 
trumps — had an eye to the main chance in de- 
priving their weaker brethren of their strongest 
weapon of offence, which can be as easily wielded 
by recruits as by veterans. 

Force is a question-begging word, conveying the 
idea that you in your unwisdom are compelling 
your partner against his will to do something dis- 
advantageous to your side ; whereas a player re- 
quires a thorough knowledge of the game to refuse 
to give his partner an opportunity of making a 
small trump. 

In Whist the saddle is put on the wrong horse by 
requiring a player to have affirmative reasons for 
giving his partner a chance of a ruff, and more 
rubbers are lost by moderate players through this 
error than by any other eccentricity in play. 

One of the most brilliant Whist players in 
England is always urging his partners to force 

118 



Forcing 



119 



him whenever they can ; and at Bridge you should 
invariably give your partner the chance of a ruff, 
unless you have good reason to believe that he is 
playing a strong game with a substantial chance of 
bringing in a long suit. If with this knowledge 
you ask him to ruff, you are forcing him in the 
strict sense of the word. 

In all other cases it is an entirely gratuitous 
assumption that you weaken your partner by giv- 
ing him a ruff: on the contrary, you may increase 
his trick-making power by 50 per cent., and in 
numerous hands, when each of you can make a 
couple of tricks, you get the coveted fifth trick and 
save the game by the ruff ; but you must not wait 
until you have four other tricks made or marked 
to give your partner the chance, for the oppor- 
tunity may be lost for ever, and it rarely happens 
that you know whether the trick will save or win 
the game at the time you can give the force. 

Except you see that the game is hopeless unless 
your partner is strong in trumps and can bring in a 
suit, force him whenever you can, in the absence of 
any knowledge of what he wants you to do. A 
discard before trumps are led or asked for only 
tells you his weakest suit, and does not show that 
he has any strong suit at all. 

The primary object of all play is not to let your 
partner know what cards you have, but to win 



i2o Badsworth on Bridge 



tricks ; and it is fatuous to give up a certain trick 
for a problematical gain which may or may not 
accrue later on. If you are not strong enough to 
lead trumps, and your partner is not strong enough 
to ask for them, a certain ruff is an advantage not 
to be lightly thrown away. A wasted opportunity 
is less easily redeemed at Bridge than at Whist, as 
the combined strength against you is directed by 
one adversary. 



AMENITIES 



Bridge is a game at which the schoolmaster is 
terribly abroad; but the men who are most anx- 
ious to educate others are usually the least capable 
of doing so. No one values gratuitous advice, and 
every man who wants to learn anything prefers to 
choose his tutor. 

The primary object of a game is amusement, 
which is marred by gratuitous and impertinent in- 
struction being pressed upon you from all sides at 
every conceivable opportunity. 

The area of pleasure would be widened if all 
players would accept with silent gratitude the gifts 
— the many gifts — which their adversaries shower 
upon them. When an opponent lets you win a 
rubber by not dashing in to save the game at his 
last and only chance, it is a pity to say to him, 
" You might have saved it by leading your ace of 
clubs, mightn't you?" Can any one honestly 
think that in saying this he is making the evening 
rubber more agreeable to an erring friend ? 

Still more objectionable is the practice, when the 

121 



i22 Badsworth on Bridge 



erring opponent is not a particular friend, but a 
man who will not allow a liberty to be taken with 
him, of having a shy at him under the guise of 
communicating to your partner your grateful ap- 
preciation of your good luck in making the winning 
trick with a queen which was marked blank in your 
hand, while the king was against you. 

The first Lord Brougham said that he always 
looked to an adversary as acting upon some views 
of his own advantage which might be more or less 
judicious, but that he seldom supposed any gross 
blunder. This sagacious and practical view might 
be adopted with advantage by all card players, to 
the general increase of pleasure and amusement; 
and a partner is surely entitled to the same toler- 
ance as an adversary. The partner who tells you 
when you have in error trumped a suit of which the 
best card was marked in his hand, that, knowing 
he had the queen in his hand, you deliberately 
trumped his trick and threw away the rubber, is as 
unwise as he is rude. Knowledge might surely 
enjoy the pleasures of power without granting the 
monopoly of politeness to ignorance. 

Bridge is a game which requires more patience 
and a more unruffled temper than Whist, as the 
game is played very slowly by beginners, and each 
blunder can often be seen as it is made. It is 
doubtless trying to watch a bad partner who is 



Amenities 



123 



playing your exposed cards, throwing away two or 
three tricks by the most palpable blunders, in 
which you are unable to see his possible view of 
his own advantage ; but you must remember that 
he is playing to amuse himself, and is presumably 
doing so, and to throw him a few leaflets from your 
own rich store of knowledge will not increase his 
enjoyment, nor have you any commission to im- 
prove his play. 

Senile irascibility, increasing deafness, and the 
growing disinclination of advancing years to leave 
the ruts of wont and use, are disqualifications for 
Bridge, and elderly Whist players who are con- 
scious of these infirmities are wise in clinging to the 
old game they know ; but the progress of Bridge 
cannot be arrested by boycotting or misrepresenta- 
tion. Xo more impudent fabrication was ever 
hurled against a new game than the obvious mis- 
statement that Bridge offers more opportunities 
for gambling than Whist. 

Visible signs of impatience at the slowness of 
others aggravate rather than mitigate the evil. 
You cannot push another man's "gee" along. 
The only way the progress of the game can be 
quickened is by every one playing as fast as he can, 
by patiently accepting inordinate slowness as an 
unavoidable evil, by not interfering with a long 
"think" when a player wants and means to have 



i24 Badsworth on Bridge 



it, and by observing silence during the play of the 
hand. 

This last point is most material, as many care- 
less remarks are made which reveal the position 
of important cards — e. g., Dummy on your left has 
the queen and one small spade on the table, and 
you want one trick to save the game. Your part- 
ner leads a spade, and, on your playing the king, he 
exclaims "Saved! 1 ' or "Dover!" to indicate the 
desired haven is reached, although he has no rea- 
son to believe that was the limit of your aspira- 
tions, and by his remark communicates to you 
that the ace is held by the dealer, and that it is 
useless for you to persevere with the suit. 

The dealer can see more easily than any other 
player what the result of the hand will be ; but he 
must not expect his opponents to accept his de- 
cision without laying his cards on the table, that 
they may see he is right in his view. Some players 
say, "The rest come here," and continue to play 
the game, hurrying their opponents, with the card 
to be next led poised menacingly in the air, and 
assuring them that it does not matter what they 
play. 

This is very confusing, and sometimes leads to a 
revoke. The dealer should either show the game 
or play it out at the usual pace with the wonted 
courtesies. His opponents, who have to play the 



Amenities 



125 



hand to the end, are certainly entitled to think 
what cards they will play. 

On the other hand, the dealer should not be 
asked to declare whether he can get the rest of the 
tricks. This is constantly done by an impatient 
player with no possible winning card in his own 
hand. When the dealer replies that the hand 
must be played out, he communicates to his ad- 
versaries that there is a trick to be fought for, and 
this may enable them to discover in his hand a los- 
ing card which he has been endeavouring by false 
cards to conceal. 



THE POINTS 



Before sitting down to a table at Bridge, be- 
sides ascertaining what the points are, it is neces- 
sary to have it clearly stated whether the general 
practice of not allowing doubling to be continued 
indefinitely is to be regarded as a rule which no one 
may transgress. 

There is no law on the subject; a suggestion is 
tacked on to the chapter on " Etiquette" that 100 
points is a reasonable limit to prevent undesirable 
results flowing from indefinite doubling : but there 
is no semblance of authoritative direction in the 
sentence, nor a word to indicate that the high card 
authorities have pronounced the going beyond the 
limit to be a breach of etiquette. 

On the contrary there is a studious avoidance of 
the words used in all the other paragraphs of the 
chapter which state, "There ought to be" — "A 
player should avoid" — "Any one should not draw 
a second card" — " No player should object" — 14 It 
is unfair to revoke purposely." 

It will be observed that the strong word ' ' unfair ' ' 
is only applied to an intentional revoke by au- 

126 



The Points 



127 



thorities who are accustomed to exercise judicial 
functions ; any extension of this word which now- 
a-days leads to a quarrel, and which would once 
have led to a duel, is greatly to be deprecated ; it is 
better not to attach any importance to unauthor- 
ised extensions of the rules of etiquette by writers 
who are merely expressing their own opinions. 

A player who carries the points beyond a hun- 
dred by re-doubling is not guilty of a breach of 
etiquette ; he is entitled by the laws of the game 
to do so, and it is therefore absolutely necessary 
to have a distinct understanding on the question 
before cutting for partners; otherwise the points, 
if they are only a farthing, may be taken far beyond 
the bounds of reasonableness. 

The average points of a rubber at Bridge are 107, 
and the lowest sum that can be staked in nominal 
coin is half- a- farthing, which on the prevalent sys- 
tem of reckoning tenpence to the shilling amounts 
to one shilling and threepence a hundred. 

Bridge is leading the way to decimal coinage by 
counting tenpence to the shilling; it is easy to 
calculate, as it can be seen at a glance that 170 
points at decimal pennies amount to seventeen 
shillings ; this is equivalent to half-crown points at 
Whist, as two rubbers of Bridge take about the 
same time to play as three rubbers of Whist. 

To make the calculation as simple as possible it 



128 



Badsworth on Bridge 



is usual not to reckon any unit ; and so nothing, for 
instance, is counted between 170 and 180; if the 
points add up to 172 or 174, the rubber is counted 
at 170 only; but if the points are more than half- 
way between 70 and 80, that is to say, 176 or 178, 
the rubber is counted at 180, which is readily seen 
to be 185. at penny points, gs., at half -penny points, 
4s. 6d. at farthing points, and 2s. 3d. at half -farth- 
ing points ; two figures only have to be divided by 
2, 4, or 8. 

A great many players at small points persist in 
calling the stake by the hundred and not by the 
point ; there is no advantage or brevity in calling 
half-penny points five shillings a hundred, and 
it may lead to misunderstanding; so the stake 
should always be mentioned by the coin unit to 
prevent the possibility of any mistake. 

If you wish to play for less than half-farthing 
points you must distinctly state that the stake is 
sixpence for a hundred points ; if you say on sit- 
ting down to Bridge that the points are sixpence, 
meaning but not saying sixpence a hundred, a 
player who is in the habit of playing sixpenny 
Bridge, and who misunderstands you to mean what 
you say, will expect to be paid five pounds if he 
wins a rubber of 200 points, while you will be un- 
der the mistaken impression that you have only 
lost a shilling. 



The Points 



There is an erroneous outside impression that 
Bridge is a more expensive game than Whist, and 
that more money can be won or lost at it. This 
is clearly impossible with stakes at a corresponding 
amount ; penny Bridge and half-crown Whist will 
lead to the same financial result. 

Bridge offers no encouragement to gambling 
and, as a matter of fact, there is much less betting 
at Bridge than at Whist. Five to two on the 
winners of the first game is rarely laid, and there 
is very little betting on the rubber, as the range 
of opportunities between losing a few points and 
winning three or four hundred in one successful 
rubber affords ample scope for the amusement of 
the most speculative. 

A player who is losing at Bridge cannot raise the 
stakes, nor push the game, except by the suicidal 
policy of rashly declaring no trump or recklessly 
doubling — dangerous ventures, bringing sure and 
prompt punishment, which are speedily aban- 
doned after a very brief trial. 

The pulpiteers and theorists who speak and 
write about the gambling of Bridge surely cannot 
know that it is really always played for fixed 
points at which it is impossible to gamb!e in the 
true sense of the word. Do they imagine that the 
few gamesters who play for higher points than 
they can afford to lose, and who play for the 



i3° Badsworth on Bridge 



money they hope to win and not for the pleasure 
of the game, would not find an outlet for their 
gambling tendencies in the money market or on 
the race-course, where they can increase their 
stakes at pleasure, and ruin themselves, in a day 
if they choose ? 

There has been considerably less Baccarat 
played in England since Bridge jumped with 
a bound to the highest pinnacle of card fame; 
and the general opinion among card players 
who know what goes on is that there has been a 
great diminution in gambling at cards since the 
intellectual game of Bridge supplanted Poker, 
a game of cunning, and Baccarat, a game of 
chance. 

A charm of the game, and one of its lasting at- 
tractions, is that you can have a little flutter for 
very low points ; and so an outlet is found without 
any risk of ruin for the development of that 
healthy spirit of adventure which helps to make 
an island nation great and prosperous; if there 
were no spirit of enterprise in the individual there 
would be none in the national character. 

There is, however, no doubt that a great many 
people constantly play Bridge for stakes which 
they cannot afford to lose and which they never 
dreamed of playing for at Whist ; and it may be 
useful to many players to know the reasonable 



The Points 



limits of gain or loss which may be regarded as the 
probable result of a year's regular play. 

For every penny in the points a win or a loss 
of £100 in the year may easily come about with- 
out any extraordinary luck ; so a player at penny 
points may expect to win or lose £100 in a year, 
and a player at farthing points £25. It is con- 
sidered very bad luck to lose 150 rubbers on bal- 
ance in a year, but with a long run of bad cards 
against you it is possible that these figures might 
even be doubled; but any one who is prepared to 
lose £30 in a year may safely play at farthing 
Bridge. 

It may be useful to an occasional player to 
know that he should not sit down for an afternoon 
game at farthing points without having two or 
three sovereigns in his pocket ; to play throughout 
at a w r eek-end party for threepenny points may 
result in a loss of £30 or £40. Half-farthing 
points are the highest stake within the prudent 
grasp of a player whose only income is a dress 
allowance in the region of £100 a year. 

No one should cut for partners without asking 
what the points are, and if doubling is limited to 
100 points, it will then be impossible for a week- 
end visitor who imagines the game is being played 
for love, to be asked to pay £50 w r hich have been 
lost unawares; when such a misunderstanding 



i3 2 Badsworth on Bridge 

occurs there must be something wanting on the 
part of the visitor, and a great deal wanting on 
the part of the host ; if the advice given in this 
chapter is followed, these regrettable incidents, 
which do not raise the national character, will 
occur no more. 



A GOOD START AND A DEFINITE 

GOAL 



Having ascertained clearly what points you are 
going to play for, you have to cut for partners ; in 
cutting each card should be turned over so that 
every player can see it ; you should not peep at 
your card, as if you had a prior right to see it, and 
announce who are partners. 

In every partnership of two, sympathy is es- 
sential for complete success; so if your partner 
should express a wish to take the winning cards or 
the winning seats, when the choice rests with you, 
it is better in your joint interests to refrain from 
making a caustic remark about your own freedom 
from superstition ; what you call superstition your 
partner calls faith in the traditions w r hich have 
been handed down by the time-honoured leaders 
of Whist through many generations. 

It is unwise to start by detaching yourself in any 
way from your partner before the pack is cut for 
the first deal ; so unless there is some substantial 
reason for refusing to accede to his request, such 

133 



134 



Badsworth on Bridge 



as bad light, an uncomfortable chair, a possible 
draught, or an objection to the fire at your back, 
you should take the seats and the cards he wants ; 
let him call for new cards whenever he likes, with- 
out telling him that you have never done such a 
thing in your life, in a tone and with a manner 
which show that it has never occurred to you that 
your omission to do so may possibly have been 
foolish. 

A barrister of light and leading who laughs at 
the idea of attaching any importance to the win- 
ning cards, cut in for the last rubber, and took the 
pack which had just won a Grand Slam ; this name 
comes from an Oriental custom of a player on 
sweeping the table making an extravagantly low 
bow, or grand salaam, to the other players. 

An opponent at once called for new cards, 
whereupon the learned sceptic asked him to forego 
his right as the delay of two or three minutes 
might make him lose his train ; the opponent 
agreed to do so if he might take the winning cards ; 
the learned sceptic could not bring himself to act 
up to his own principles, and to give up the win- 
ning cards ; he declined to compromise, and missed 
his train, and lost the rubber; yet to this day he 
lives under the delusion that he is above what he 
calls the superstition of believing in the winning 
cards. 



A Definite Goal 



i35 



In dealing, high action should be studiously 
avoided; to lift each card from the pack before 
throwing it to its place so that your partner who 
is directly opposite cannot avoid seeing it without 
turning his eyes away from the table , is distinctly 
wrong. It is a poor defence when your attention 
is drawn to the irregularity to say that you are 
sure no partner you play with will look at the 
cards ; the wrong-doing is complete, so far as you 
are concerned, when you deal in such a manner 
that he can see them. 

The next point is to get a good start; it is as 
distinct an advantage at the Bridge table as in 
the hunting-field, but it is not to be got by simply 
wishing for it; you must make up your mind to 
have it, and go for it at once, and bustle a bit 
directly you may move. So the moment the deal 
is over you should take up your cards and sort 
them at once in their order in suits, alternating the 
black and red suits. 

The hands are more quickly sorted and the 
declaration made at the commencement of a rub- 
ber than afterwards, because there is no talking 
over what might have been and was not and no 
lecturing or fault-finding for real or imaginary 
errors ; so you should decide not to speak a word 
after you have taken up your cards, or to listen to 
any silly chatter about what would have happened 



i3 6 Badsworth on Bridge 



in the last hand if no trump had been declared by 
an adversary who had not a trick in his hand. 

You should count your cards in suits and look 
carefully at your hand, and note the strength, the 
weakness, and the tenaces; with the score and 
your own cards before you as on a chessboard, 
you are in a position to declare immediately if 
your partner passes, or to decide whether you will 
double or not directly the declaration is made by 
an adversary; you can devote the whole of your 
attention to Dummy's cards as soon as they are 
laid on the table. 

The man whose whole life is one long, stern 
chase, and who never does to-day what he can put 
off until to-morrow, will go on for ever waiting 
until the deal is over to enter the score ; and when 
he is told 12 and 24, asking which is above and 
which is below the line, and then enquiring what 
the declaration is and who made it, and whether it 
was original or on a pass ; this is one of the draw- 
backs of Bridge which has to be endured, and you 
should make up your mind firmly that you will 
not join this great army of bores. 

Having got a good start, the next point is to have 
a definite goal, and as soon as Dummy's cards are 
on the table, you should settle as far as possible 
what the goal is to be. Xo generalities are of the 
least use at this stage of the game. You must not 



A Definite Goal 



i37 



assume that you are to defend because an adver- 
sary has declared trumps, or that you are to play 
an aggressive game because the declaration was 
made by you or your partner. 

The question depends in a great measure on the 
cards in the exposed hand, and it is impossible to 
decide if you will attack or defend before seeing 
them ; when the dealer has declared an expensive 
suit and Dummy lays down a hand with two or 
three tricks in it, you must play a defensive game, 
even if you have a very good hand; but when 
Dummy has made the trump and your hand is 
stronger than his, or when Dummy lays down a 
very weak hand on his partner's declaration you 
can generally attack with a chance of success, and 
with very little risk of disaster, if you have a good 
hand. 

The four great goals a player has before him at 
the beginning of the game are : 
To win the game. 
To save the game. 
To get the odd trick. 

To score 6, or to prevent the adversaries' scor- 
ing 6. 

When a player has made his decision he should 
do his utmost to get there, and not try to score 
anything more, if by doing so he should in any way 
lessen the chance of reaching his definite goal. 



138 Bads worth on Bridge 



The importance of the first two goals is recog- 
nised by most players, but in other cases when 
there is no chance of the game being lost or won, 
a great many indifferent and careless men play a 
hand-to-mouth game, getting what tricks they can, 
without any regard to the result ; this constantly 
leads to a finesse being made which loses the odd 
trick carrying double points with it. 

If you can certainty get the odd trick, say, in 
hearts, and if you risk securing the seventh trick 
when you can win it, by trying a finesse which, 
if it succeeds, will give you two by cards, you 
gain 8 points by the finesse; should it fail and 
the adversaries get the odd trick instead of you, 
the loss is 16 points. It must be a most un- 
profitable and foolish venture to risk 16 points 
for 8 on something like an even chance, and yet 
this is done day after day by numerous players 
with no goal before them, and with no precise 
idea of the position, at the time of deciding for 
or against the finesse. 

It must not be thought that a decision is final 
and unalterable; on the contrary, it constantly 
happens that as the game advances tactics have to 
be changed ; attack has to be abandoned and the 
defensive assumed, or vice versa: but still there is 
always a definite goal, although liable to alteration 
under fresh developments, before a sound player, 



A Definite Goal 



i39 



and each trick is part of a clear plan of campaign 
and not an isolated act of clutch and grab. 

The pleasure of the game is greatly increased by 
having a clear goal before you, and this is one of 
the many cases in which it will be found that pleas- 
ure and profit go together; each move in the 
game is part of a plan to reach a destined point, 
and each trick shows whether your chance of 
success is increasing or diminishing : when the de- 
velopments of the game necessitate he substitu- 
tion of defence for attack, the decision must be 
prompt and the action vigorous. 

It is surprising how much more frequently the 
saving trick is missed at Bridge than it used to be 
missed at Whist ; the score should always be before 
every player, but it constantly is not. Again and 
again you hear a player saying apologetically to 
his partner, " I ought to have played the ace, but I 
did not see at the moment that it would have 
saved the game." When your goal is to save the 
game, you should see at the start how many tricks 
you have to get and keep that number always in 
mind; if you know you want four tricks, for in- 
stance, you can never fail to save the game when 
you have a chance of making the fourth trick, and 
you can never want to refer to the score during the 
play of the hand. 

The slovenly way in which tricks are constantly 



H° Badsworth on Bridge 



gathered and stacked makes it difficult to see how 
many tricks you have got ; if your partner will not 
allow you to collect the tricks you should ask him 
to be kind enough to keep them in an orderly 
manner so that you can see at a glance, without 
showing that you are looking, the exact position 
of the game at a critical moment. 

The number on the principal and ultimate goal 
is 30, which must always be before you, and the 
several laps in the game are the subordinate num- 
bers you must never lose sight of. At the begin- 
ning of the game 6, which is the boundary number 
of the first lap, is the point to make for, or to 
strive to keep the opponents off. 

To keep the opponents in the first lap, that is, to 
prevent them reaching the score of 6, on their own 
deal, is a distinct advantage which should never 
be hazarded for the chance of reaching 6 yourself ; 
it is true that you have the next deal, and that it 
is far easier to reach 30 from 6 than from love, but 
it does not pay to rush the game from the start ; 
if you fail to win the game in the next deal, the op- 
ponents are in a much better position from the 
start you have given them. The definite goal 
should be to keep them in the first lap, a good 
result for you on their deal, and you should try 
for nothing more until it is practically certain they 
cannot reach 6. 



A Definite Goal 



141 



It is not sound to bring the point of 6 into the 
lucky bag to be scrambled for, when you can 
worry the adversaries by simply keeping them 
back; the vacillation of attacking and defending 
at the same time, combined with the pot-valiant 
bravery of the constant doubler of spades, leads 
to the loss of more rubbers than any other com- 
bination of unsound principles with questionable 
practice. 

The other strategical points are 12, 14, 18, and 
24, and of these 18 is the most important as it 
brings the game within easy reach of a diamond, 
a club, or a doubled spade. 

Practice and observation will soon show a player 
the relative importance of these several resting- 
places on the road ; all that is now urged is that 
whenever your definite goal is not to win or save 
the game, or to get the odd trick, you ought to 
have a clear and precise purpose of reaching one 
of these scores yourself, or of keeping the adver- 
saries away from one of them. 



THE DECLARATION BY THE 
DEALER 

Many of the doubts which have arisen about the 
laws for the declaration of trumps, leading to con- 
stant differences of opinion and references, have 
been settled by the decisions given by the com- 
mittee of the Portland Club in Cases 1,2,3,4, and 
5. (See pages 55, 56.) 

A slip of the tongue, accidentally saying what 
was not meant, carelessly naming hearts instead 
of diamonds, followed by a prompt correction be- 
fore any declaration as to doubling or not doubling 
has been made, is held not to be a declaration 
within the meaning of Law 5 2 ; there was no in- 
tention to declare. 

If the players do not believe the allegation that 
a misnomer is being rectified, and have doubts 
whether an attempt is being made to alter a 
declaration on a false pretence, they must say so 
at once, and no change can be made ; no Court of 
Reference can decide this question of fact or give 
any opinion whether an inference unfavourable to 

142 



The Declaration by the Dealer 143 



the declarant's veracity or to his belief that he did 
not intend to say what he tittered, can be drawn 
from any delay in making the correction. 

If the dealer's partner declares out of turn that 
he passes, either adversary can claim a fresh deal 
without consulting with his partner, as passing is 
Jield to be a declaration within the meaning of 
Law 50 ; the dealer is not obliged to declare a suit 
until the decision about claiming a fresh deal has 
been announced. 

Should the dealer, after waiting "a minute or 
so" to give reasonable time for a fresh deal to be 
claimed, proceed to declare trumps before the 
adversaries have announced their decision, he puts 
himself in a most disadvantageous position; for 
either adversary can claim a fresh deal, or let the 
declaration stand, when of course it can be doubled 
or not at pleasure. 

There are three distinct policies about the 
declaration : 

1. The dealer should attack if he possibly can 
by declaring no trumps, or a red suit, or a very 
strong club ; he should not concern himself with 
defence, no matter what the weakness of his hand 
may be; if he cannot attack he must pass. 

2. The dealer should declare spades when he has 
no probable trick in his own hand. 

3. The dealer should never pass unless he has 



i44 Bads worth on Bridge 



three tricks in his own hand ; with less than three 
tricks in his hand he should make a defensive 
declaration in a black suit. 

The third policy which is said to be current in 
Australia has not been adopted here; it has the 
effect of dividing the power between the dealer and 
his partner, and enabling no trumps to be declared 
more frequently under circumstances in w T hich the 
declarant is almost sure to get the odd trick, and 
never runs any risk of absolute disaster. 

There is considerable attraction in this policy; 
the numerous cases in which each partner has a 
hand slightly above the average, instead of being 
played on a spade declaration as frequently hap- 
pens, would all be played as safe no trumpers, and 
the doleful duet, "I wish you could have de- 
clared something as I have a capital subsidiary 
hand, ' ' and ' 1 1 left it to you hoping for no trump 
or a heart" would be heard no more. 

This compensates in a great measure for the loss 
of a strong no trumper when Dummy holds the 
cards ; it eliminates much of the element of chance 
from the game, for speculative no trumpers are 
the joy of the pushing player and one of the 
greatest amusements of the game. 

But in England we do not love a dull three per 
cent, level ; we like to have a go when the feeling 
prompts us, and we do not want to be bound to 



The Declaration by the Dealer H5 



declare a spade with a hand which has not three 
tricks in it ; a policy which has a tendency to re- 
duce all players to one level in the matter of 
declaration is not likely to find acceptance here. 

This policy has one marked advantage over an 
original declaration of spades; partners do not 
trench upon each other's rights and prerogatives, 
and no friction is likely to arise between them on 
the question of passing, and but very rarely about 
the declaration on a pass. 

Bath long enjoyed the distinction of giving its 
name to a coup at Whist; Cheltenham has now 
gone ahead of her old rival, and embraced the 
original spade declaration with the love of a foster- 
mother ; and the Cheltenham spade, supported by 
mathematicians and theorists, is now the idol of 
one school of players and the terror of another. 

Its advocates assert that it pays, but the claim 
appears to rest on some mathematical calculations 
shewing that it ought to pay, which is an entirely 
different matter. 

When "Cavendish" was looking over my little 
brochure before it was published he interested me 
by explaining how he and a celebrated scientific 
writer on Whist had subjected their theories to the 
test of a thousand deals before giving them to the 
world; they had reached the conclusion that a 
thousand was a sufficiently large number of deals 



i4 6 Badsworth on Bridge 



to reduce the difference between the result of them 
and the calculated result to a negligible quantity. 

Only a generation ago! and now in these days 
of stress and hurry it is doubtful if two men could 
be found in England, whose opinion on the result 
would be of any value, to take the trouble of 
dealing the cards a thousand times for the purpose 
of ascertaining the result of a protective spade 
declaration; and yet one of the finest Whist 
players and the most scientific writer on Whist the 
world has known thought it fit and proper to sub- 
ject their theories to this test. 

So it is very doubtful whether any one knows 
whether it does or does not pay for the dealer to 
declare a spade when he has not a probable trick 
in his hand ; there is the indisputable fact against 
it that good players in London have not adopted 
it, and there is probably no limit to the money 
which would be found to back players who do not 
declare the Cheltenham spade against players 
who declare it, if a sufficient number of rubbers 
were played to give practical value to the trial. 

It must be remembered that the men who are 
reckoned among the best players in London are 
not all millionaires to whom a thousand pounds, a 
sum which may easily be won or lost in a year at 
shilling points, is a matter of absolutely no mo- 
ment; so if there is really any profit to be made 



The Declaration by the Dealer 147 



out of an original spade declaration, it is strange 
that none of them should have discovered it. 

Inability to accept the limitations of a spade 
seems to be a weakness incident to Bridge players, 
and even in the case of an original spade declara- 
tion the advocates and followers of the policy have 
long ago flung away the limitation of no probable 
trick in their hand, and have largely extended 
the bounds of protection they throw over their 
partners. 

If the ordinary player assumes it to be his duty 
to protect his side from the consequences of the 
possible rashness or injudiciousness of his partner, 
he falls into the habit of persistently clutching the 
declaration, and of rarely passing it; he declares 
when he is strong; he declares when he is weak; 
and in his protective role he makes a doubtful dia- 
mond for fear his partner should declare hearts, of 
which he has only one in his hand. 

The latest development in the way of a pro- 
tective declaration by the dealer is called "A de- 
fensive heart," which appears to be a contradiction 
in terms, as hearts are usually declared for the pur- 
pose of attack. 

At the beginning of a rubber with the score 
love-all the dealer declared hearts, which were 
doubled; being a comparative stranger, ignorant 
of the idiosyncrasies of the different players, and 



14-8 Badsvvorth on Bridge 



accustomed to find three certain tricks in the hand 
of a player who declared the most expensive suit, 
the dealer's partner re-doubled; he had four cer- 
tain tricks in his hand, and the 10 of hearts. 

The dealer had five hearts to the queen, 9, 
and the knaves of diamonds and spades ; it was 
a hand with two tricks in it which he made by 
trumps ; this was alt he could reasonably hope to 
make, and as his partner won four tricks, he only 
lost the odd trick, which was a better result than 
he had a right to expect. 

The dealer, who is a very fine player, with an in- 
grained dislike to passing the declaration, said he 
was sorry there was a re-double as he had called 
"A defensive heart." 

In all questions of protection the thin end of the 
wedge is a distinct danger ; if the dealer is to pro- 
tect with no probable trick in his hand he will pro- 
tect with one trick in his hand, with a trick and a 
half in his hand, and with two tricks in his hand, 
for the same argument holds good that the odd 
trick will probably be lost if he passes ; the pro- 
tective spade will be followed by the doubtful dia- 
mond and the defensive heart, and King Clutch 
will reign for ever. 

Players do not like losing the opportunity of 
making a strong no-trump or heart declaration ; 
there is a lack of sympathy and a recurring feeling 



The Declaration by the Dealer 149 



of friction sometimes bordering on annoyance be- 
tween a player who thinks he ought to have a 
chance of attacking given to him by his partner 
and a votary of the Cheltenham spade, who is de- 
termined to prevent his partner putting his foot 
into it. 

The pleasure of a great number of players is 
largely diminished by having a partner's protec- 
tive hand for ever extended over them; even if 
you could persuade them by showing the result of 
a thousand hands that a little profit was to be 
made out . of the Cheltenham spade, they would 
forego it to have the pleasure of more frequently 
playing a dashing game; but until good players 
adopt the system, most people who think the 
question out for themselves will probably con- 
clude that the profit is in the highest degree 
problematical, while the loss that accrues from 
always being out of touch with your partner is 
certain. 

It is not a sporting game; the phrase can be 
laughed and scoffed at, but a sporting game still 
has an attraction for most Englishmen over a 
game based on huckstering calculations of profit 
and loss, even if these were certain* and not 
hypothetical. 

The theory has a plausible appearance, for the 
chances are doubtless against your partner making 



i5° Badsworth on Bridge 



seven tricks by his own cards, but this unlikely 
result comes off constantly, very much oftener 
than a study of mathematical chances shows it to 
be likely to occur. 

The way cards get grouped in a pack cannot be 
explained, but every observant player knows that 
on some days deal after deal from the same pack, 
and occasionally from both of them, gives an ab- 
normally long suit to at least one player. 

It is not only an everyday occurrence to find a 
player with seven tricks in his own hand, but it 
often happens six or seven times in as many con- 
secutive rubbers on the days when the cards are 
running high. 

Six cards to a tierce major and another ace is by 
no means an unusual hand, and when you hold a 
Yarborough (a hand with no card higher than a 
9) your partner has his best chance of holding an 
overpowering no trumper, or a very strong hand 
in hearts, with a possible honour score of 100 or 64. 

Even if your partner has not a hand strong 
enough for attack, it by no means follows that the 
protective declaration he will make will be more 
disastrous than an original spade declaration. 

He may call a spade which puts you in a much 
better position ; it is a mistake to think that if 
Dummy would have declared a spade on a pass, 
the result is the same and no harm is done by the 



The Declaration by the Dealer 15 1 



original declaration ; account must be taken of the 
tricks lost in play by the dealer's impotence being 
announced, and of the numerous cases in which 
there would be no doubling if spades were called 
on a pass when it might be a strong declaration 
and not a weak one. 

Dummy may hold a strong club suit which is 
certain not to be doubled ; should you lose the odd 
trick, or even two or three tricks, the result may 
be much more favourable than a spade selected 
only for its weakness, and inviting a double, would 
have secured. 

The dealer who is in the habit of declaring a light 
diamond causes much anxiety to his partner who 
is hoping for an opportunity of declaring no trump 
or hearts; this anxiety will be considerably in- 
creased if the possibility of a spade declaration has 
also to be considered. 

The adversaries of the dealer will be glad to have 
the chance of a no-trump declaration on a long suit 
of six or seven cards, with a card of entry being 
considerably reduced, by Dummy losing his op- 
portunity when the dealer has a hand of great 
weakness. 

The advantage to the opponents of knowing 
that the dealer has not a trick in his hand is enor- 
mous; it enables them to play a strong forcing 
game from the outset, to come through Dummy 



Badsworth on Bridge 



again and again and to finesse deeply against him 
with the knowledge that no long suit can be estab- 
lished against them. 

The lead can be thrown at pleasure to Dummy, 
who is compelled to open a fresh suit at a disad- 
vantage ; each opponent knows nearly all the im- 
portant cards in the other's hand, while the dealer 
has no idea of their distribution; when Dummy 
lays down a strong hand they are on a coigne of 
vantage for thwarting him, and when he lays down 
a weak hand they can grind him to powder. 

A spade declaration by the dealer with no trick 
in his hand does not necessarily secure the greatest 
safety, while it entirely destroys the chance of 
making a good score on his deal. 

So the claims of the Cheltenham spade can be 
laid on one side and a player who wishes to win 
and at the same time to make the game as pleasant 
as possible to his partner will attack if he can ; but 
if he is not strong enough to do so he will pass and 
give his partner the chance of making an effort to 
get forward if he considers himself strong enough 
to try. 

AYhen you are the dealer your goal is to win the 
game, and with your score at love you should 
always declare no trump if you can reasonably ex- 
pect to make the odd trick, should you find your 
partner with an average hand. 



The Declaration by the Dealer 153 



There are four players and four suits ; so a hand 
with a card of each value in it, from the 2 to the 
ace, is an average hand; with a second 10 instead 
of the 2 a hand would be very slightly above the 
average; with a second ace instead of the 2 it 
would be considerably above the average. 

There are many hands with ' k no trump" tat- 
tooed on them, with strength in all the suits, or 
with three or four aces on which no trump is de- 
clared without any hesitation ; there is nothing to 
be said about hands which declare themselves. 

There is hardly any rule at Bridge which is 
absolute and subject to no exception, and most 
players and all writers have assumed that you must 
necessarily declare no trump with four aces. 

The following hand, which was held at Brighton, 
some years ago, was sent to London for the opin- 
ions of three good players, who all separately de- 
cided that the proper declaration was hearts. 

Hearts: Ace, king, knave, 10, 9, 8. 

Clubs: Ace, queen, 5. 

Spades: Ace, queen, 3. 

Diamonds : Ace. 
The score was love all, and so there was no possi- 
bility of the dealer losing the game ; but he might 
lose two by cards, if eight diamonds were in one 
hand, and the queen of hearts doubly guarded. 

With hearts for trumps he must win the game if 



i54 Badsworth on Bridge 



he finds his partner with the king of clubs or with 
the king of spades, or with the knaves of clubs and 
spades ; there can be no doubt that the proper call 
was hearts. 

You will not often find yourself in the position 
of having to decide between the claims of four aces 
and six hearts with 64 in honours; but still it is 
just as well to remember that you need not as a 
matter of course declare no trump, even with four 
aces, when there is a clearly better chance of win- 
ning the game with a suit. 

With three aces you should always declare no 
trump with your score at love even if you have a 
carte blanche, unless you have very great strength 
in hearts with a chance of winning the game and 
with a certainty of not losing it; in the cases in 
which you waver between a no-trump and a heart 
declaration, it is generally right to select the heart. 

With one ace, and a good all-round hand, with 
suits evenly divided, it is wise to declare "no 
trump." 

It is risky to declare no trump without an ace ; 
there is an outside chance of losing 100 points by 
finding four aces in one hand against you, and 
there is the far more likely contingency of your 
adversaries' holding three aces when, with the ad- 
vantage of the lead, they will probably anticipate 
you in establishing and bringing in a suit. 



The Declaration by the Dealer 155 



The worst possible reason for declaring no 
trump is that the hand is too good for a spade. 
The question is whether the hand is or is not good 
enough for no trump, and not what it is too good 
for. It would be on a parity with this reasoning 
to appoint a man Prime Minister because he was 
too good for the County Council. 

A good general rule is that you should not de- 
clare no trump without aces or a suit with some 
backbone in it ; a long, straggling suit which it may 
take three rounds to clear is a weak reed to lean 
upon. 

When a dash has to be made, a bold no trump is 
far the safest risk to run and the most likely to 
succeed ; this was recognised and pointed out from 
the first, and the more the game is played the more 
it is seen that it pays for the dealer to declare no 
trump with a hand which is but slightly above the 
average; he certainly runs a risk, but he has the 
best of the position, and if you always have a 
trifle in your favour in every speculation, the 
result at the end of the year will not be un- 
favourable. 

A general who is afraid of losing a battle is 
heavily handicapped in his efforts to win one; a 
safe man with a good deal of experience from which 
he has probably learned nothing rarely makes a 
venturesome dash ; he goes on with the plodding 



156 



Badsworth on Bridge 



game which might pay at Bridge if he could only 
induce the other side to adopt the same tactics ; 
but after reaching the score of 1 8 or 12 by cautious 
play and slow and steady advance he finds that 
an opponent makes a rush for the game with the 
lightest no trumper, and finding his partner with 
a good hand, easily rides home. 

The cachet of the age one lives in is a factor 
which cannot be disregarded, and in these days of 
haste and hurry the general dislike to slow and 
cautious methods must be recognised by every 
one who enters into a partnership, and more 
especially at a game where the object is amuse- 
ment. 

It is impossible to make a list of border-line no 
trumpers which would be likely to be of any use 
at the critical moment ; each player must find out 
by his own observation the border-line between a 
declaration of no trump from a pass when he 
deals, and from a spade when the declaration is 
passed to him. 

It must be recognised that there is a border-line 
below which it is sheer folly to call no trump ; it 
does not depend upon the number of certain tricks 
you can get with your own cards, but upon the 
total number of tricks your cards will probably 
make in combination with what you can reason- 
ably hope to find in your partner's hand ; whether 



The Declaration by the Dealer 157 



the two hands have a greater or less power of com- 
bination, if you find the precise number of high 
cards you have a right to expect, must always be 
a matter of chance. 

If your longest suit, for instance, is five cards to 
the queen, knave, 9 of spades, it makes a wonder- 
ful difference whether the only king or the only 
ace in y our partner's hand is the spade or not ; if 
it chances to be the ace or the king of spades you 
may get four tricks in the suit ; otherwise you may 
possibly not make even one trick, and this differ- 
ence might easily turn the issue of the game, on 
which your partner's approval or disapproval of 
your declaration may unreasonably hang ; all you 
can know in making the declaration is that your 
partner is more likely than not to have one of the 
two cards. 

A brilliant player with hereditary card instincts 
of the highest order is constantly calling the 
maddest and most foolish no trump ; his declara- 
tions scare his partners and fill his opponents with 
hope. 

But he is a man of the world with a wider 
knowledge of it than most of us, and there is not 
much that any one can teach him; the proba- 
bility is that even with losing a great many rub- 
bers by silly declarations, he finds it answers in the 
long run to call light no trumpers in preference to 



158 Badsworth on Bridge 



playing a safe and plodding game; he has, more- 
over, an advantage which is purely personal, in not 
getting out of touch with his partners through his 
unjustifiable calls, by reason of a singular charm 
of manner, which softens madness into indiscretion. 

Bridge is a game at which the hare will beat the 
tortoise; the slow and safe players fail to grasp 
that they can fairly hope to find their partner with 
an average hand and that they should therefore 
always look for it; I am more firmly convinced 
than ever of the soundness of my view of five years 
ago that you should declare no trumps if you can 
reasonably expect to make the odd trick; more 
rubbers are lost by failure to adopt this policy than 
by any other form of vacillating timidity. 

If you are not strong enough to declare no 
trump, the claims of hearts must be next con- 
sidered. 

Every player declares hearts with four honours, 
or with five hearts to a tierce major without any 
regard to the cards in the other suits. 

When strength in the suit is not sufficient by 
itself to justify a call of hearts you should ordi- 
narily declare hearts when you see a fair chance of 
making five tricks by your own cards, unless there 
seems to be a likelihood of no trump being de- 
clared on a pass. 

When you have a singleton there is a greater 

i 



The Declaration by the Dealer 159 

chance of your partner holding a very long suit 
than when your cards are evenly divided ; if you 
hold no ace there is a much better chance of your 
partner being able to call no trump on the aces ; if, 
however, it appears improbable that no trump will 
be declared on a pass the best thing you can do 
for your side is to declare hearts with four or five 
tricks in your own hand. 

With king, queen, 10, 7 hearts, 

ace, 8, 6 diamonds, 

ace, 5 clubs, 

10, 9, 4, 2 spades, 
you are almost certain to get a black suit declara- 
tion if you pass ; there is nothing to pass for but 
no trumps, and if your partner has a no-trump 
hand a very good score will be made; if he has 
an average hand you will do very well, so the dec- 
laration has nothing of a speculative character 
about it; should he have strong clubs which he 
would have declared on a pass, they will be good 
for 8 points a trick instead of 4; even if your 
partner has a poor hand, which you should not 
look for in settling the declaration, you can make 
a very good defence with this unseen hand when 
you are driven into a corner with your back to 
the wall. 

You are not declaring hearts in the hope that 
your partner has strength in the suit, for if he 



i6o 



Badsworth on Bridge 

o 



holds only three cards, and you must count upon 
his holding the ace, the knave, or the 9, the 
balance of strength is on your side, and you will 
probably establish his long suit if he has one; if 
he has an all-round hand you are in the best posi- 
tion for making the most of the cards. 

There is a growing backwardness about declar- 
ing hearts with only four, and a good general hand : 

With queen, knave. 9, 8 hearts, 
ace, 10, 3 diamonds, 
king, queen, 9, 6 spades, 
queen, knave, 8 clubs, 
I should declare hearts without any hesitation ; it 
is a hand without aces (the plural speaks of more 
than one) or a suit with any backbone. 

You want a very little from your partner to 
enable you to play a strong game, while you can 
expect nothing but a spade if you pass ; should 
your partner have a no-trump hand you are very 
likely to win the game, and but little is lost by 
your declaration. 

It is almost a matter of regret to assign even as 
a subsidiary reason for a declaration that you can 
expect nothing but a spade if you pass ; for this 
reason is on ceaseless dutv in palliation of every 
foolish call, every mad venture, every unnecessary 
rush for the game, both when there is and when 
there is not any urgent need for hurry ; when you 



The Declaration by the Dealer 161 



can reckon on scoring 8 or 16 with the ordinary 
help you have a right to look for from your partner, 
the probability that you will score less if you pass 
is an excellent additional reason in favour of the 
call ; but to be afraid of a spade which may possi- 
blv save you from defeat is by itself no reason at 
all for making a declaration. 

There is a difference of opinion about what 
should be done with six cards of a red suit and a 
Yarborough. 

It is better to make the declaration in either 
hearts or diamonds than to pass ; at the first blush 
this may appear to be in contravention of the 
general principle that if you cannot attack you 
should pass and leave defence entirely to your 
partner; but it is not really so, for it is not a 
purely defensive declaration, as it is made in the 
hope of advancing towards the goal and because it 
seems to be the best chance of doing so. 

Your contribution in all probability will be three 
tricks in an expensive suit, and unless your partner 
has a very bad hand you are likely to get the odd 
trick ; if you pass you hold a hand without a single 
trick in it, and unless your partner has an excep- 
tionally good hand worth seven tricks you must 
lose the odd trick ; if he has such a hand you will 
make a very good score on your red suit declara- 
tion ; you do not deprive yourself of the chance of 



1 62 Badsworth on Bridge 



making a good score, and you take the best chance 
of immunity from utter rout. 

If you pass, the adversaries soon discover that 
you cannot get the lead into your own hand, and 
the value of Dummy's cards is greatly depreciated 
by your disclosed impotence ; you pass with an in- 
stinctive feeling, which is often a better guide than 
many forms of reasoning, that you will regret it, 

You know how anxious you are sometimes to see 
Dummy's cards when you have declared a border- 
line no trump ; when he lays down a hand without 
a trick in it, you find yourself in a dangerous and 
uncomfortable position; it seems unwise volun- 
tarily to supply one-half of the most perilous posi- 
tion for a heavy loss when you have within your 
grasp a good chance of getting the odd trick on a 
red suit declaration, and the possibility of making 
a very good score. 

Opinions differ widely about declaring dia- 
monds. In America, diamonds are never de- 
clared by the dealer with the score at love, but he 
passes to his partner in the hope of no trump or 
hearts being declared. 

This hope is often not realised, and a weak spade 
is declared by Dummy, and doubled by one of the 
adversaries who score 8 or 12 points when they 
would have lost the odd trick or more in diamonds. 

If you can reasonably hope to make two or 



The Declaration by the Dealer 163 



three by cards, should you find your partner with 
an average hand, it is better to declare diamonds 
than to pass; and your partner's sorrow or in- 
dignation when he has a strong no-trump hand, 
or 64 in hearts, must be accepted with quiet 
resignation. 

With a very strong hand in clubs and a proba- 
bility of scoring 12 or 16, the main point for con- 
sideration is what you can hope for if you pass. 

If you hold two honours in hearts you are not 
likely to get a heart from Dummy and a diamond 
is not worth passing for ; so the only question for 
solution is whether you should give up a certain 
honour score and a sure odd trick for the chance of 
a no trumper; if, however, there is a chance of 
your partner calling a heart or no trump, it is 
better not to declare a strong club. 

The hands in which you hope to get three or four 
by cards in clubs are generally suggestive of no 
trump, and it so rarely happens that an original 
club declaration with the score at love is judicious 
that ordinary social players may well regard dia- 
monds as the last weapon of attack from that 
position ; I do not find it expedient to make this 
club declaration more than once in fifty rubbers; 
it should be looked upon as a very exceptional call, 
which it would be wise for players not to touch 
without considerable experience and practice. 



164 Badsworth on Bridge 



The dealer should declare any suit when he sees 
a chance of winning the game with it. At 18 it is 
often right to declare clubs, or spades at 24. 

If the dealer has no suit which it is an obvious 
advantage to declare, he should not clutch the 
declaration lest his partner should do something 
risky or wrong, but should pass with quiet confi- 
dence in the simplest language. The words of the 
rule, "I leave it to you, partner," cannot be im- 
proved upon. 

Hesitancy and indicative mannerism will never 
be banished from this pleasant planet, but the 
position should not be aggravated by such re- 
marks as, "It is very difficult. What is the 
score? I really don't know what to do. Well, I 
shall leave it to you, partner." 

What cannot be helped cannot be altered, and a 
man who indulges in the delights of vacillation, 
and in every difficulty of life lets his doubts dance 
on the surface, must necessarily gain the advantage 
of communicating to his partner, when the goal is 
beyond the reach of a black suit, that it is a doubt- 
ful point whether he ought not himself to declare 
no trump or a red suit, instead of passing. 

This substantial advantage from hesitation can- 
not be removed without fixing some minimum 
strength — as for instance holding at least three 
aces or eight court cards — below which no trump 



The Declaration by the Dealer 165 



should not be declared on a passed hand ; general 
opinions appear now to be increasing in favour of 
an alteration of the laws in this direction. 

Meanwhile the dealer should certainly make no 
remark of any kind, and every player should try to 
take the same average time in looking through his 
hand before passing ; for a quick player who sees 
that he must pass as he takes up his cards and 
says " I leave it," before he sorts them, communi- 
cates to his partner that he has a hand of no 
doubtful character. 



THE DECLARATION BY DUMMY 



Dummy is obliged to make a declaration, and 
cannot pass on the responsibility ; so long as he is 
allowed by the laws of the game to take up his 
cards before the dealer passes, he should be ready 
to make the declaration at once. 

You should not look at the score after your part- 
ner passes the declaration to you ; looking at the 
score and poring over your cards starts your ad- 
versaries on a line of thought which may lead them 
to a correct view of the grounds of your hesitation ; 
the score should be grasped and known before 
taking your cards up, and surely it is easy to re- 
member it for less than a minute 

The first question to decide is whether you have 
a hand for attack or defence ; if you determine to 
attack dare you declare no trump? If you feel 
obliged to defend must it be a spade? 

On a pass it is generally right to declare no 
trump with the cards on which the dealer would 
have made the declaration; but if your weak 
points are of a pronounced character you must 

1 66 



The Declaration by Dummy 167 



remember that the weakness is aggravated by 
exposure. The protection afforded by a singly- 
guarded king, or by a cold ace is considerably 
diminished when the cards are laid on the table. 
We are indebted to America for the convenient 
word " cold" to describe a card which stands alone, 
with no guard to it, in the coldness of isolation. 

With three aces and no other winning card it 
is questionable whether it answers to declare no 
trump ; an adversary opens with his long suit, 
which he will probably establish, before the dealer 
can clear a suit, if he chances to have one of any 
length and strength. 

The aces can be forced out very cheaply in their 
exposed position, which considerably reduces their 
value ; but on the other hand, if your partner has 
a long suit he will probably establish it before 
your adversaries do much in a second suit. 

Some players declare no trump with a good 
partner, and make a defensive declaration with a 
partner who does not usually make the most of the 
cards ; after giving this plan three or four years' 
trial I reached the conclusion that it does not pay. 

The hands indifferent players have the fewest 
opportunities of blundering over on their own deal 
are those in which they have one long suit with the 
aid of three aces to bring it in with; this is the 
hand you are hoping for on your partner's deal 



1 68 Badsworth on Bridge 



when you feel you are overmatched by reason of 
his inferior play. 

So as a general rule it is better with partners of 
every degree of capacity always to declare no 
trump with three aces ; but if you have won the 
first game, and the adversaries are 18 or more to 
your love in the second game, it is safer to declare 
any suit you are likely to save the game with than 
to call a light no trump for a partner who will 
probably lose a trick in the play of the hand; 
the trick he throws away may turn the scale ; this 
makes it much more likely that your opponents 
will get the odd trick than that you will get three 
tricks. 

It is not sound to assume that your partner has 
more strength in the black suits than in the red 
suits ; all that he communicates to you by pass- 
ing the declaration is that he has not sufficient 
strength in hearts or diamonds to declare either of 
them. 

But all the strength he has may be in the red 
suits; with king, 10, and two small hearts, queen, 
knave, 10 of diamonds, and six black cards of no 
value he is obliged to pass, and you may fairly 
credit him with average strength in hearts and 
diamonds. 

If the situation is critical with your adversaries 
near the goal, and good generalship suggests a 



The Declaration by Dummy 169 



dash, a bold no trump is far the safest risk to run 
and the most likely to succeed. The position may 
have induced your partner to pass with con- 
siderable strength in the expensive suits, but not 
sufficient to get home on, in the hope of your being 
able to declare no trump. 

If you wish to attack and dare not venture on 
no trump, hearts may be declared when you have 
four certain tricks in your own hand. Three tricks 
may reasonably be looked for from the dealer with 
the advantage he has in the play of the cards ; this 
is a border-line declaration, and the state of the 
score must be most carefully considered ; when one 
trick gives the adversaries the game a border-line 
declaration of an expensive suit is not to be 
thought of, if the game can be saved by calling a 
spade or a club. 

With two suits of five cards, with two honours in 
each of them, it is generally advisable to declare 
the more valuable suit. 

A speculative heart is a dangerous declaration to 
be avoided, unless one or two tricks will give your 
adversaries the game on a black suit. In this posi- 
tion the hazardous venture may be the best or 
even the only chance of saving the game. 

A most foolish make is a doubtful club, when you 
cannot win the game, but may lose it if you are 
doubled. The club is a poor suit to attack with, 



i/O Badsworth on Bridge 



unless there is excessive strength in it ; it is terri- 
bly misused by one per cent, speculators, who can- 
not bring themselves to accept the limitations of 
a spade, and who risk everything to gain so little. 

For defensive purposes a club is useful, and its 
claim to recognition rests mainly on its being a 
safer defence than an extremely weak spade which 
may give the adversaries the game if it is doubled ; 
at this state of the score, when the strength in 
clubs is sufficient to make doubling unlikely, a 
club is a more prudent call than a weak spade. 

With your score at 28 and the adversaries be- 
hind you it is by no means necessary to declare 
your best suit; on the contrary, it is very dan- 
gerous to declare a weak red suit which is likely 
to be doubled, and on which the adversaries may 
win the game from a score of 6 or love; with a 
hand you ought to go cheap on, it is best to go 
cheap. 

The dealer constantly says that he left it for his 
partner to declare his best suit ; he is going beyond 
his rights in assuming to settle a point which rests 
with you ; he can only leave it to you to do what 
you think best for your joint interests in the cir- 
cumstances. 

This erroneous impression has probably arisen 
from confusing this state of the game with the 
position of the adversaries' score being at 28; but 



The Declaration by Dummy 171 



when the adversaries are at 6, and you are at 26 
or 28, the best way you can help them is to call 
an expensive suit which they can double and get 
home on. 

The dealer is obliged to pass when he has not 
got a trick in his hand, when he hopes you will not 
declare a light red suit ; should he have a good 
all round hand, or a hand with which he must get 
the odd trick whatever suit you call, he wants your 
best suit ; but as you have no idea which of these 
positions he is in, you cannot consider his wishes 
and wants, and you must make what you think the 
best declaration, on the usual supposition that 
your partner has an average hand. 

With the adversaries' score at 28 it is an en- 
tirely different matter, and you must declare your 
strongest suit, even though it be a light red suit, 
with but little or no support in the other suits ; in 
this case the dealer does pass for your best suit, as 
it gives him the best chance of getting the odd 
trick, and a heart does not help the adversaries 
towards the game more than a spade does. 

The object of calling your best suit is to prevent 
the adversaries winning the game on your part- 
ner's deal ; and, in the main struggle for winning 
or saving a game, the minor question of possibly 
losing a few more points on the rubber is not 
worth consideration. 



1 72 Badsworth on Bridge 



There is of course a degree of weakness approach- 
ing utter impotence, to which no general rules can 
apply ; if there seems to be absolutely no chance 
whatever of saving the game, there is nothing to 
try for, but to lose as little as possible in points. 

It is obvious that in making the trump, the 
value of honours must be considered, if there is 
no chance of winning the game ; but it is better to 
give up even 48 by honours in diamonds, if there 
is clearly a better chance of winning the game in 
hearts or no trump. With no apparent prospect 
of winning the game, the value of honours should 
be unhesitatingly secured. 

The score is an important factor in determining 
the trump, and care should be taken to avoid los- 
ing any advantage already gained on the scoring 
block. With your adversaries' score at 14, and 
your own score at 18, diamonds are preferable to 
hearts, for you win with two tricks while your 
adversaries want three; but either side wins the 
game with two tricks, if you call hearts. Simi- 
larly with your score at 22, and your adversaries' 
at 24, clubs or hearts are preferable to diamonds, 
for either side wins the game with two tricks in 
clubs or one trick in hearts, but you want two 
tricks in diamonds while your adversaries win the 
game with the odd trick. 

The danger of losing the game if the adversaries 



The Declaration by Dummy 173 



get a deal with their score at 24 appears to be over- 
estimated, and rash and ruinous declarations are 
constantly made by which the result sought to be 
avoided is more speedily brought about, and the 
adversaries win the game without another deal. 

There is no score at which it is more difficult to 
make a declaration on a doubtful hand than 24; 
if a lightish red suit is declared, it may be doubled 
on the slenderest grounds and the game may be 
lost by it; when you pass at 24 do you feel fairly 
confident that you will win the game, and when 
the unwelcome call of " Spades" comes from your 
partner, is it wholly unexpected? 

The exaggerated feeling of groundless panic at 
your adversaries being in a position you find to be 
one of some difficulty yourself is hard to under- 
stand ; the worst declaration is one on which you 
may easily lose the game, and are most unlikely to 
win it ; you must have a definite goal clearly before 
you ; if you see a chance of winning the game, have 
a try for it ; if you see no chance of winning the 
game, endeavour to get the odd trick. 

A speculative heart or diamond is an unsound 
make, when the adversaries are more likely to get 
one trick than you are to get the two or three tricks 
you want. 

It is no time for half -measures, to try and save 
the game, and at the same time to make some 



i74 Badsworth on Bridge 



advance to help you in your next deal, if you get 
one ; you must devote the whole of your energies 
to preventing the adversaries scoring even 2, which 
reduces the remainder of their course by one-third, 
and brings the goal within measurable distance of 
a spade. It is unsound to make a risky rush for 
the game because the adversaries' score is 24. 



DOUBLING 



There is no penalty for asking out of turn if you 
may play, or for doubling, or re-doubling out of 
turn ; but no player should knowingly speak out 
of turn, as it is held to be contrary to etiquette to 
disregard laws, even though they may be looked 
upon as directory rather than mandatory, by rea- 
son of no penalty being attached to disregarding 
them. (See Case 6.) 

When no trump is declared by either adversary, 
if you hold a suit of seven cards or more headed by 
a tierce major, and have the lead, you double with 
the hope of making six or seven tricks straight off. 

With only six cards headed by a quart major 
it is not wise to double if you have the lead ; you 
are almost sure to get six tricks and you cannot 
lose the game with your adversaries' score below 
1 8 ; and if no tramp has been declared on a fairly 
strong hand with three aces, it is very doubtful 
whether your partner will be able to win a trick. 

With six tricks in your hand, you must not as- 
sume that you are only asking your partner to get 
one trick out of seven, for you must credit the 

175 



i;6 Badsworth on Bridge 



declarant with five tricks in his own hand. So 
unless no trump has been declared solely on the 
strength of three aces, there are only one or two 
tricks to be scrambled for ; and if either adversary 
has a long suit, it is almost sure to be brought 
in. 

The case is different if your partner has the lead, 
for he is not likely to open your suit unless you 
double ; and so you double with a strong suit of 
six or seven cards in the hope of your partner 
making a successful guess at your suit. (See 
chapter on " Leads.") 

You must have sufficient strength in the suit to 
establish it by the one lead your partner gives you ; 
with a card of entry in another suit it is not neces- 
sary to hold both the ace and the king to double ; 
if you hold six or seven cards headed by the king, 
queen, knave, or by the ace, queen, knave, your 
card of entry is almost sure to be taken away from 
you before your suit is cleared, unless you can get 
your partner to open the hand by leading it ; the 
only chance of bringing in your suit is to have it 
led at once, and you must communicate your 
urgent need to your partner by doubling. There 
is danger in doubling on a strong all-round hand, 
as you want your partner in this case to lead his 
strongest suit, and not his weakest ; and even with 
a hand of phenomenal strength it may happen that 



Doubling 



the only way of missing the game is by your part- 
ner leading his shortest suit. 

A good player who was fourth in hand doubled 
no trump declared by the dealer with the score 
love-all, with the following cards in his hand : 

Clubs: Ace, king, queen, to, 8, 6. 

Diamonds: Ace, 7. 

Hearts: King, 3. 

Spades: Ace, king. 
The best chance of missing the game was a weak 
lead of hearts; the double was unsound for the 
distance to the goal was only reduced by one trick 
at the expense of inviting a disadvantageous lead 
of a short suit ; if his partner opens with his longest 
suit the game is almost certain ; there was no ne- 
cessity to run the slightest risk for the chance of 
having a club led. 

The result which is beside the question was dis- 
astrous, for the heart suit was opened, and 
Dummy laid down 6 to the knave ; the doubler 
only got the odd trick and eventually lost the 
rubber. 

With such a powerful hand against him the 
dealer would appear to have called an extremely 
light no trump, but this was not the case ; he held 
the ace, queen, 9 of hearts, king, queen, knave, 9 
of diamonds, the queen, knave, 10, 9, 7 of spade?, 
and the knave of clubs. 




i7 8 Badsworth on Bridge 



Another bad double of no trump by the fourth 
hand which brought about defeat was on ace, 
king, queen, knave, 9 of clubs, ace, king, knave, 
10 of spades, three small hearts and one small dia- 
mond; the club suit is not of sufficient length to 
make it probable that it will be the leader's 
shortest suit, and as preference is given by the 
leader to a red suit in cases of doubt, by reason of 
almost equal weakness in two suits, the double will 
probably bring about the lead of a red suit which 
is not wanted. 

A player who doubles no trump on a long suit is 
very rarely re-doubled, as there is generally the 
possibility of seven or eight tricks being made in a 
suit the declarant was obliged to risk. 

If, however, after doubling on one suit only, you 
are re-doubled, you must bear in mind the possi- 
bility of your adversary being able to stop your 
suit, even if you have eight cards headed by a 
quart major. 

When a suit is declared a material point for con- 
sideration is whether you play before or after the 
declarant, for if you play before him you must 
have a very powerful hand to double with the 
strength in trumps behind you. 

If you have strength in trumps and play after 
the declarant, you know you can materially reduce 
the trick-making power on which he has called 



Doubling 



179 



the trump; if you hold the ace, queen, 10, the 
declarant will probably get two tricks less in 
trumps than he reckoned upon; so with two or 
three tricks in plain suits in your hand you can 
safely double. 

It is far more dangerous to double a trump made 
by the dealer, who only declares when it is clearly 
advantageous to do so, than to double a trump 
made by his partner, who, being obliged to make a 
declaration, is often driven to select the best of a 
bad lot. 

It rarely pays to double unless you can fairly 
hope to make six tricks with your own cards, for 
it is not safe to reckon on more than one trick 
from your partner, as you and the declarant ought 
to make ten or eleven tricks between you; when, 
however, you are doubling without great strength 
in your hand because the odd trick gives your 
opponents the game, you may reckon upon finding 
your partner with an average hand. 

The most uncertain suit to double is the spade, 
for spades are often declared on a border-line, no- 
tramp hand. If you double on the chance of its 
being a weak declaration, one re-double making 8, 
a trick may enable your adversaries to win the 
game from a score of 6, or even from love, and you 
have voluntarily abandoned a position of absolute 
security to court disaster and defeat. 



180 Badsworth on Bridge 



The careless doubling of spades loses more rub- 
bers than is generally recognised ; it is not only in 
the few games where the adversaries at once win 
the game by the re-double, but in the many cases 
where it enables them to get out of the first lap, 

1. e., to get to 6 and beyond it by making two 
tricks in spades. 

With the score at love it is not wise to double 
spades unless your hand gives you ample grounds 
to hope that you will get two by cards; you 
should not give the adversaries a chance of reach- 
ing 8 or more, by attempting to score 4 instead of 

2 . You have had a stroke of good luck in getting 
a spade declaration, and it is better to be content 
with getting over an adversary's deal on a cheap 
score than to embark on a venture which can only 
be a sort of one per cent, speculation for you, but 
which gives the enemy the chance of running the 
hand at the rate of the most expensive suit. 

The score must always be carefully considered. 
When the odd trick wins the game for your oppo- 
nents, it is often advisable to double, and risk the 
loss of a few points, even with a hand only slightly 
above the average, in the hope of winning the 
game or of making substantial progress towards it 
for your next deal 

Paradoxical as it may seem to be, it is more 
disadvantageous to double at this state of the score 



Doubling 



181 



when you have greater strength in your hand, as 
you diminish your trick-making power by disclos- 
ing it ; the dealer will finesse deeply against you as 
he credits the doubler with strength, which is to 
your advantage when you have gone in for a 
speculative double with a hand slightly above the 
average, and to your disadvantage when you are 
strong. 

When your object is to win the odd trick and 
save the game, if you have a strong hand the 
greatest help you can give the dealer is to com- 
municate the nature of your hand to him by 
doubling. You should only double when you 
want two tricks or more at the doubled rate to win 
the game, and when you see a reasonable chance of 
getting them; if the dealer calls hearts with his 
score at 22 and your score at 14, you should not 
double on the sole ground that the odd trick will 
give either side the game, because you lessen your 
chance of getting the odd trick; but with your 
score at love and a chance of getting two by cards 
it is quite a different matter ; this is doubling ' ' to 
the score" in the proper sense of the word. 

It rarely pays to double when the distance to the 
goal is only reduced by one trick ; e. g., if diamonds 
are declared with your score at 12, you are quite 
as likely to get three tricks without doubling 
as you are to get two tricks after doubling, and 



1 82 Badsworth on Bridge 

therefore you should only double if your partner 
has the lead and you want him to open with a 
trump. 

Knowledge of a player's idiosyncrasies some- 
times helps you to determine whether to double or' 
not ; there are many adventurous no-trump mak- 
ers, and many light-hearted makers of expensive 
suits, who mistake rashness for bravery and reck- 
lessness for enterprise; but even these daring 
spirits sometimes wander into the realms of com- 
mon sense, and it is not wise to run too great a risk 
on the chance of its being a light declaration. 
Necessarily, too, all players, rash as well as sound, 
constantly hold overpowering heart and no-trump 
hands ; but the declarations of these adventurers 
are not entitled to the same consideration as those 
of a sound trump -maker. 

There is very little doubling when the game 
is known and the trump is declared on proper 
grounds; re-doubling is extremely rare, but if you 
are re-doubled you must be very cautious about 
continuing the process, and you must consider the 
possibility of the most improbable combinations, 
and of your aggressive adversary holding every 
other card of value. If hearts are declared, and 
you hold the six best cards, and the ace of clubs 
and the ace of diamonds, you double on what 
looks an absolute certainty; but if you are re- 



Doubling 



183 



doubled you must consider the possibility, if not 
probability, of your adversary holding seven 
trumps and six winning spades. 

It is dangerous for the declarant's partner to be 
the first to re-double in any circumstances when 
the declaration has been made by one sound 
player and doubled by another; but if you have 
unlimited confidence in your partner it is part of 
the policy and play of the game to support him in 
his venture if you can. 

When your partner has dealt and declared a suit 
the considerations are different when he is doubled 
by the leader on his left and when he is doubled by 
the fourth player on his right; if the leader has 
doubled, he is probably over your partner in 
trumps, and can discount two or three of the tricks 
he expected to make ; so even if you feel sure you 
must be stronger than the fourth hand, it is dan- 
gerous to double with the strength in trumps be- 
hind your partner. 

If the fourth hand who plays before the dealer 
has doubled, he ought to have a very powerful 
hand, and you must consider the possibility of 
your partner having called a red suit on six small 
cards, and of the doubler having four honours if 
you do not hold one yourself ; your partner's hand 
may be worth only one or two tricks, and your 
re-double may be gone over, which would make it 



184 Badsworth on Bridge 



64 a trick on a heart declaration; you are getting 
into big figures by a rash leap in the dark; so 
although the considerations are different on a 
double from either adversary they lead to the same 
conclusion. 

It very rarely happens that there is room for a 
third player to come in when a good player doubles ; 
it is difficult to give any guidance in the matter 
beyond pointing out the extreme danger of joining 
in the fray ; this danger is considerably increased 
by the recent unsound developments of protective 
declarations which embrace a doubtful diamond 
and a defensive heart; an instance of the disas- 
trous result of re-doubling what the dealer called 
a defensive heart is given in the chapter on the 
' ' Declaration by the Dealer." 

Although the speculative doubling of spades is 
so general the dealer must be very careful about 
re-doubling, even if he has a hand bordering on no 
trump ; there is always the chance of Dummy 
having a veritable out and out spade hand without 
a trick in it ; it seems unwise to give your adver- 
saries a chance of making a good score or of win- 
ning the game on your deal with spades at 16 a 
trick. 

The declarant will, of course, re-double when he 
has a higher opinion of himself than he has of his 
doubling adversary, but the cases in which it is 



Doubling 



185 



advisable for his partner to join in are so few, that 
it is safer not to re-double on your partner's declara- 
tion, while you feel there is anything left for you 
to learn about the game. 



WHAT SUIT TO LEAD 



When no trump is declared the longest suit 
should always be led, if there is any strength in it ; 
but there are differences of opinion about the best 
course to follow, when your longest suit has no 
likely trick in it. 

In this deplorable condition it is better to lead a 
knave or a 10 of a three-card suit; the object is 
to do as little harm as possible and to give your 
partner all the information you can at the only 
opportunity you will have of making any com- 
munication to him. 

He will generally be able to tell from his own 
cards and the exposed hand that he cannot expect 
any aid from you and that he is engaged in single 
combat with the dealer, with whom he is put on 
even terms from the first ; your partner and the 
dealer each know the high cards in the other's 
hand, and it is almost reduced to a game of 
Double Dummy. 

If you lead a 5 from four cards headed by a 
9, your partner may credit you with great 

186 



What Suit to Lead 187 



strength in the suit, if Dummy is weak in it, and 
devote all his energies to assisting you in bringing 
in what you have not got. At the very com- 
mencement you put the dealer, who is aware of 
your helpless state, in a position of vantage to crush 
your partner, who has no idea whether you have 
great strength in the suit, or no trick at all in it, 
when the high cards are in the dealer's hand. 

In addition to the harm resulting from your 
partner's ignorance of the position a weak lead of 
this kind often leads to the loss of an important 
trick; if Dummy lays down the 10 and two small 
cards, and your partner holds the king, knave, 2, 
the dealer wins the first trick by taking the king 
w T ith the ace ; when your partner gets in he returns 
the knave, which the dealer wins with the queen, 
and your opponents get three tricks instead of two 
in the suit; Dummy's 10, moreover, is made good 
as a card of entry to give the dealer another lead 
through your partner. 

The lead of a strengthening card can rarely do 
much harm, though it may doubtless lead to the 
loss of a trick, e. g., you lead a knave, on which 
your partner plays the king, as you may be leading 
from ace, knave, 10, and the dealer with ace, 
queen, 10 in his hand makes three tricks in the 
suit; but the lead is so disadvantageous with a 
hand cf extreme weakness, that a trick will 



1 88 Badsworth on Bridge 



probably be lost through it in any suit you may 
venture on. 

Your partner, however, becomes aware of the 
position at the first trick, and he can use the suit 
to play the dealer in if he wishes to do so; he 
knows he must play for his own hand and he im- 
mediately sets his brain to work to see how he can 
get five tricks with no illusory hope of getting any 
assistance from you. 

Even with a knave in your four-card suit w T hich 
may possibly win in the third round after an 
honour in your partner's hand has been slaugh- 
tered, it is better not to open the suit, but to lead 
a strengthening card; a knave may strengthen 
your partner, but it very rarely strengthens your 
opponents, who must make the tierce major if they 
have it, and the knave must drop when you only 
have three cards in the suit. 

But when you have four cards the knave need 
not drop, and if it chances to be the knave of the 
declarant's strong suit, you stop the suit in the 
fourth round even if they have the tierce major; 
you get a second lead which may be most useful 
to your partner, on whose cards you are relying in 
any circumstances to get four of the five tricks you 
must win to save the game. 

If the strengthening card you open with happens 
to be in your partner's suit you have given him 



What Suit to Lead 189 



valuable assistance, and you get the utmost possi- 
ble value out of your cards ; the establishment of 
your partner's suit, winning a trick, stopping the 
long suit of an adversary, and a second lead. 

Before deciding whether you will always lead 
from a four-card suit when no trump is declared, 
it is well to approach the question from your part- 
ner's point of view: imagine yourself in his posi- 
tion ; would you prefer to have a small card led 
which may mean anything from no possible trick 
to five tricks in the suit, or would you rather know 
from the first that your partner cannot get more 
than one trick, and that you must play entirely 
for your own hand ? 

If you are in the happier position of having to 
choose between a suit of five cards to the 10, and 
a strong suit of four cards it is not always advisa- 
ble to lead from the longest suit ; a four-card suit, 
such as king, queen, knave, 4, or king, knave, 10, 9, 
or queen, knave, 10, 9 is a better opening; if you 
open the long suit you will probably be compelled 
to discard from it before your strong suit is 
reached, and when your partner wins a trick he 
does not know what you want him to do. 

If your partner has doubled no trump, unless 
you have a very strong suit in which you hope to 
make several tricks, you should try to hit off your 
partner's suit, instead of leading your own. 



i9° Badsworth on Bridge 



In America and on the Continent a player 
always leads a heart if his partner doubles no 
trump ; this is called the Heart Convention ; but in 
England, on the presumption that your partner 
has doubled on one very long suit, you try to hit 
it off by leading your shortest suit. 

If you have a red suit and a black suit of nearly 
equal weakness, preference must be given to the 
red suit, as the declarant is less likely to have very 
great strength in it. It is more than an even 
chance that you hit upon your partner's suit, but 
when the declarant has also gone upon a long suit, 
you sometimes go into the lion's mouth. 

If you are in doubt, with two very weak suits, 
which to lead, and you have an ace, it is often 
advisable to play it ; you will then see the exposed 
hand before making a shot for your partner's suit, 
and the cards you see on the table may materially 
assist you in reaching a right conclusion. 

It often happens that the look round after play- 
ing out an ace does not give the information you 
hoped for; so if you have another card cf entry, 
besides the ace, it is better to make the shot for 
your partner's suit, without freeing a suit for your 
opponents by leading out your ace ; for the over- 
throw is complete, if after clearing a suit by play- 
ing the ace, you get no inkling from Dummy's 
hand and lead the wrong suit. 



What Suit to Lead 191 



With the following hand : 
Diamonds : 10, 7 ; 
Hearts: Ace, 8, 5, 3 ; 
Spades: King, queen, 7, 6, 5; 
Clubs: 3, 2, 

the leader, on his partner's double of no trumps, 
opened with the ace of hearts, and Dummy laid 
down the following cards : 

Diamonds : King, 5,2; 

Hearts: Knave, 6, 4; 

Spades: 10, 9, 4, 3; 

Clubs: Queen, 9, 7. 
The look round left the leader in precisely the same 
difficulty he was in before, with the disadvantage 
of the heart suit being cleared for the dealer to 
make four tricks in ; the leader can now see that 
his partner has either the ace, king, knave of clubs, 
or the ace, queen, knave of diamonds at the head 
of his long suit, but there is nothing to show which 
suit to choose as Dummy has an honour in both 
of them ; selecting the red suit in preference to the 
black, he led the 10 of diamonds and lost the game. 

On taking up his cards he could see that if he 
opened with the diamond, the adversaries could 
make nothing but diamonds and the ace of spades 
before he got in ; he could not have lost the game 
unless there had been seven winning diamonds 
against him, which was highly improbable. 



i9 2 Badsworth on Bridge 



The dealer held five diamonds to the ace, king, 
five hearts to the king, queen, the ace and another 
spade, and one club; he would only have made 
five diamonds and the ace of spades, and he would 
have lost the odd trick instead of winning the game 
if the 10 of diamonds had been originally led. 

The most difficult question to settle at Bridge, 
and the one on which there is the widest difference 
of opinion, is whether it pays best on a suit declara- 
tion to try to establish a long suit, and make tricks 
with the small cards in it, or to lead a card of the 
shortest suit in the hope of making a small trump ; 
as the best short suit to get a ruff on is that of 
which you have only one card, the question may 
be described as Singleton v. Suit. 

In favour of the singleton it goes without saying 
that it carries with it the charm of delightful sim- 
plicity ; a schoolboy of fifteen can be turned out a 
finished and accomplished leader at Bridge in five I 
minutes if he is always to lead his shortest suit 
when there is a trump, and his longest when there 
is no trump. 

The play of the cards on a trump declaration is 
precisely the same as it was at Dummy Whist, 
where the claims of the singleton, always flashy 
and pretentious, were weighed in the balance and 
found wanting, after being subjected to every test 
and trial, theoretically and practically. 



What Suit to Lead 193 



We are asked to believe that all these conditions 
are materially affected by the trump being selected 
by an adversary who, by reason of his presumed 
strength in trumps, will be able to prevent a long 
suit being established against him; but even 
when an opponent has great strength in trumps, 
the best way to attack him is to force him, and 
make him open a plain suit himself. 

The degree of gain and loss is different; when 
the singleton lead fails the damage it causes is of 
the greatest possible magnitude; over and over 
again it is the only way of losing the game, for if 
the singleton happens to be of the long suit of 
either adversary, trumps are drawn, and the suit 
is brought in, giving the desired discards to the 
other adversary. 

At Whist an adversary could not tell if it was a 
singleton or not, when the strength in the suit lay 
with his partner ; but at Bridge the dealer knows 
it before he plays a single card and can go at once 
to bring in the suit. 

Success is falsely ascribed to the singleton in 
many cases when a trick has not really been gained 
by the ruff, for the whole hand is played differently 
through the dealer knowing the position of every 
card in this suit ; it often enables him to throw the 
lead to Dummy and to come a second time through 
his right-hand adversary, after making a successful 

*3 



i94 Bads worth on Bridge 



finesse against him; the result of my observation 
of the singleton lead is that it loses a great many 
more games than it saves. 

The gain derived from a successful singleton lead 
is usually limited to one trick, while the loss sus- 
tained by an unsuccessful singleton lead often 
amounts to two and three tricks. Unless you 
chance to find your partner with the ace, a single- 
ton is generally the best card you can lead for your 
adversaries; there is no stronger position at the 
Bridge table than playing with a partner who tells 
you his longest suit against opponents who tell you 
their shortest. 

The claims of the singleton seem to be based 
upon the ground that the strength of trumps is 
declared against you and that you ought therefore 
to play a defensive game; this view seems ques- 
tionable, for all the knowledge the leader has is that 
the declarant hopes to get five tricks with his own 
cards if he is sound in his declarations ; but it so 
constantly happens that the declarant only gets 
four tricks or less, that the original leader should 
not abandon everything in order to save the game, 
while there is a possibility of getting the odd trick % 
or more. 

In every hand three or four tricks are made by 
small cards, and the successful player is the man 
who makes the most tricks by them ; this is a fact 



What Suit to Lead 195 



which it is believed no one disputes ; it is only now 
and again that the leader holds a singleton, but in 
every hand he has a suit of four or five cards. 

The question to be determined is which policy is 
more likely to succeed, trying to make one small 
trump at any cost to your partner, or leading a 
suit in which you may make one or more small 
cards, and get the first force on the dealer; this 
force often compels the dealer to abandon his 
strong game; if it leaves him with only four 
trumps, he dare not lead a trump until his suit is 
established, and in this way you often get the ruff 
by not having led the singleton ; you may then get. 
a second force on the dealer and compel him again 
to lead up to your partner ; you make a long card 
good, you force the dealer, you get a ruff, and you 
do not open with a disadvantageous lead to your 
partner's discomfiture by placing him between a 
cross-fire. 

When you get your ruff by leading a singleton 
you have to open another suit at a disadvantage ; 
it is true you can go through Dummy's strength, 
with the possible result of at once establishing the 
suit for him, in which case the dealer will not 
grudge you the ruff. 

Your partner may have a strong hand, but not 
quite strong enough to double on, with every 
chance of making a good score, if he can anticipate 



196 Badsworth on Bridge 



the dealer in establishing a suit ; what he wants to 
know is your strong suit, and not your weak one ; 
if he has four cards to the king, knave, in your 
weak suit, and the ace, queen behind him, the lead 
of the singleton may compel him to abandon at- 
tack and to devote himself wholly to defence. 

You must not decide whether you will attack or 
defend before Dummy's cards are on the table; 
you are in the position of a combatant eager for 
the fight awaiting information about the strength 
and disposition of the enemy's forces, which you 
will know in a moment ; but you have to make one 
movement in anticipation : a step which will en- 
able you to advance for attack, or to retire for 
defence, must be the soundest strategy. 

So unless you are strong enough at once to de- 
cide for attack the card to be led at the first or 
blind lead, as it is called, as you have not seen 
Dummy's cards, should be of a neutral and pro- 
tective character, with the object of doing as little 
harm as possible; the suit should be chosen by 
successively rejecting disadvantageous leads until 
the suit to be led is reached without any regard 
to its numerical strength. 

Every suit is of course opened at a disadvantage 
unless you have a high sequence in it, but there 
are combinations from which the disadvantage of 
leading is very small: queen, knave, 8, 6 is a good 



What Suit to Lead 



197 



suit to open ; the 6 gives your partner some in- 
formation about the high cards in it, and a long 
suit is not likely to be established against you. 

When you have a tenace in one suit it is not wise 
to begin with it, but when you have tenaces in 
two suits it is better to open with one of them; you 
can hardly hope that your partner will be able to 
lead both suits to you, and you will probably be 
obliged to open one of them yourself in the end; 
when, moreover, you have strength in two suits, 
the probability of the strength of the third suit you 
would be driven to lead being with your opponents 
is very great. With a hand of this kind, when 
Dummy has made the declaration, a weak trump 
is a good lead. 

When you decide to lead a card which is of a pro- 
tective character your partner can generally grasp 
the position from Dummy's cards and his own. 

So it constantly happens that a player who pre- 
fers to bring in a long suit is compelled at the out- 
set to lead a short suit. 

With Ace, queen, 5, 2 — hearts; 
Knave, 6, 3, 2 — clubs; 
Ten, 9 — spades; 
Ten, 9, 8 — diamonds (trumps), 
the 10 of spades is the most likely card to do the 
least harm, for if you lead a club your partner will 
return the suit to you when he wins a trick ; if the 



198 Badsworth on Bridge 



dealer wins the trick, and leads out the ace of dia- 
monds, followed by a second diamond which your 
partner wins, the question for him to decide is 
what suit he must lead. 

This is the point of cleavage between the Single- 
tonians and the Suit-men ; if your partner knows 
that you play for a suit and not for a ruff, he will 
make a shot for your tenace, and will probably hit 
it off. 

If you are a Singletonian he will return the spade 
to find that you have not got a singleton this time, 
with the possible result of making three spades 
good against you on which three hearts may be 
discarded; and with a tierce major in hearts be- 
tween you and your partner you contrive not to 
make a trick in the suit, and to lose the game ; it is 
difficult to throw away three tricks in any other 
way ; the lead from one on two small cards has an 
unrivalled potentiality for mischief. 

You must play one game or the other, for uncer- 
tain and varying methods of choosing the suit must 
leave your partner in doubt whether you wish him 
to return a short suit you have led, or to try for 
the strong suit it was disadvantageous for you to 
open. Your partner cannot give you a ruff and at 
the same time lead a fresh suit to you ; the ruff you 
often get from your adversaries, the suit seldom. 

When, however, you are terribly weak with no 



What Suit to Lead 



chance of making any trick but one or two small 
trumps, and you feel sure that no matter what 
your partner's ambition may be the only definite 
goal must be to save the game, the singleton may 
be tried; it is a chance which occasionally comes 
off, but it is an exceptional lead which should only 
be resorted to in desperation; a lead from two 
small cards has all the disadvantages of a single- 
ton, with considerably less chance of success. 

Filching a trick now and again is useful for sav- 
ing a game, but it is one thing to save a game and 
another to win it ; one trick does not take you far 
on the long distance course from o to 30, and you 
should rarely decide against making an effort to get 
forward before seeing Dummy's cards ; when your 
object in the blind lead is to temporise and to do 
the least possible harm, it is unwise to choose a lead 
which can bring about the greatest possible loss. 

The general rule on a trump declaration is that 
when you are not prevented by a tenace from 
opening it your blind lead should be from your 
longest or strongest suit. 

When your partner doubles a suit you should 
lead your strong suit if the declaration was made 
by the dealer, as it is not advisable to lead a trump 
when the declarant plays after your partner ; but 
if the trump was called by Dummy you should 
lead your highest trump, unless the suit is spades, 



2oo Badsworth on Bridge 



or unless one trick gives your adversaries the 
game, while you require two or more; in these 
two cases a player often doubles with no pro- 
nounced strength in trumps ; a blind lead of the 
suit, not wanting it for your own hand, and hav- 
ing no reason to believe your partner wishes for 
it, must be an unwise and perilous venture. 

It may be part of your partner's game to get a 
trick or two by ruffing ; this is a laudable ambition 
which you need not set yourself to tlrwart; the 
doubler especially wants to know your strong suit, 
if you are to assist him in playing a strong game ; 
you should show it him at once and look out care- 
fully for an ask for trumps, which is very useful in 
hands of this kind. 

The theorists once more join issue with the prac- 
tical players and assert that if a player doubles a 
spade he ought to be able to stand a lead of 
trumps ; surely it is sufficient to know that a large 
majority of players do not wish a spade to be led 
simply because they double, and it is generally 
accepted that the leader should not open with a 
trump unless it is the best lead for his own hand; 
to give your partner something he does not want, 
because in your opinion, if he is not able to stand 
it he ought to be, is contrary to all the principles 
of this treatise and increases neither the pleasure 
nor the profit to be derived from the game. 



WHAT CARD TO LEAD 



The general rule is that when you lead a suit in 
which you have more than three cards you lead the 
fourth best, i. e., the card which is fourth in rank 
counting from the top, unless you have high cards 
in sequence, when you lead the highest card of the 
sequence ; this rule holds good both with a trump 
suit and when no trump is declared. 

The reasons for leading the fourth-best card 
have been discussed at length in a separate chap- 
ter; the highest card of a sequence is led to pre- 
vent your partner wasting a high card, as he might 
do if you led the 10 with the queen and knave in 
your hand; should he play the king on your 10, 
the ace might take it, and the 9 would be made 
good for the fourth round; should your partner 
hold the ace, and your left-hand adversary the 
king, you catch the king by leading the queen, and 
make it good against you by leading the 10. 

The accepted leads at Whist were the codified 
results of the experience of the best players com- 
bined with scientific calculations of chances which 

201 



202 Badsworth on Bridge 



had in many cases been subjected to the test of a 
thousand trials. 

With the necessary alterations to suit the inno- 
vation of playing without a trump, when a small 
card can be led with the certainty that the high 
cards of the suit will not be subsequently ruffed, 
the Whist leads are found to pay ; they are there- 
fore generally followed, without the fanciful vari- 
ations which were introduced to indicate the 
number of cards held in the suit. 

There is much in the game when it is first taken 
up to mystify many players, and the rules for 
leads should be few and simple; when you are 
playing out high cards without parting with the 
lead it is not a matter of much moment whether 
your partner discovers the number of cards you 
have in the suit at the second or at the third round. 

In the leads given in this chapter the number of 
cards held in the suit is immaterial when it is not 
mentioned. 

Lead the king ; this is not in conflict 
with the general rule that the highest 
card of a sequence should be led, but 
rather an expansion of it ; when you lead the king 
with the ace in your hand, your partner cannot 
play a higher card, and so you secure the object 
of the general rule, and also give your partner 
some information about the ace. 



Ace, king, 
queen 



What Card to Lead 203 



This lead is also in accordance with the general 
principle that you should never play an unneces- 
sarily high card without some distinct reason for 
doing so ; if you lead the queen from this com- 
bination, when there are trumps, your partner 
might ruff it; there is so seldom any gain from 
opening with the queen when there are no trumps, 
and when there is, the gain is so infinitesimal, that 
it is not worth while having different leads for a 
no-trump and for a suit declaration. 

You follow with the queen ; you keep the ace as 
long as you can, and go on with the knave, if you 
have it, or with the 10 if the knave has fallen 
under your queen ; in short, you continue with the 
lowest card in your hand which must win the trick, 
until the suit is exhausted. 

Lead the king when there is a trump, 
to secure the first two tricks in the suit ; 
there may be a ruff in the third round 
if you lead a small card. 
When there is no trump, lead the king if you 
hold five other cards, but when you have less than 
seven cards of the suit, lead the fourth best. 

The suit will not clear in two rounds when you 
hold only six cards of it; so if you lead out the 
king and the ace, you will only make two tricks, 
unless your partner has three cards in the suit or 
you have a card of re-entry in your own hand. 



Ace, king, 

without 
the queen 



204 Badsworth on Bridge 



Should your partner have only two cards of the 
suit he will not have one to lead back to you if you 
lead out the king and the ace ; but if you lead 
the fourth-best card you will probably make five 
tricks, if your partner has two cards of the suit 
and an entry card which wins in the first eight 
tricks ; there is also the chance of his winning the 
first trick with the queen or the knave. 

When you have seven cards the king must be 
led; you clear the suit in two rounds if neither 
adversary holds three cards of it ; if either adver- 
sary has three cards in the suit, the chances are 
against your partner having two of the three re- 
maining cards ; so the probability of bringing in 
the suit with the assistance of your partner is 
more remote than the chance of its clearing in two 
rounds. 

To leave probabilities for certainties : By lead- 
ing the king you secure two tricks with a chance 
of making seven ; if you lead a small card you are 
not sure of making a single trick ; it must be right 
to win two tricks instead of running the risk of 
leaving your partner to save the game by himself ; 
when you have two certain tricks in your own 
hand you do not often find your partner with five 
tricks on an adversary's declaration of no trump. 

By leading a small card you may throw the lead 
to the dealer at the first trick, by which he may 



What Card to Lead 205 



clear a suit, or even two suits, before your partner; 
if you lead out the king and the ace, you have a 
lead -to give your partner, and if he should have 
discarded, you are very likely to hit off his suit; 
in any case two tricks and a lead go very nearly 
half-way to saving a game. 

With a trump, you will avoid leading 
the suit, but if you are driven to it, 
lead the ace, and then the queen. 
With no trump lead the queen ; if you lead the 
ace you will only make one trick in the suit unless 
the king falls, as you cannot expect your partner 
to have a third card of the suit to lead for you. 

If the queen wins, and the king is not in Dum- 
my's hand, you follow with the ace, under which 
your partner will of course play the king if he has 
it; but if the guarded king is in Dummy's hand 
you follow with the knave instead of the ace. 

This puts the dealer into a difficulty, for he can- 
not tell where the ace is ; if you have it he estab- 
lishes your suit by holding up the king; if your 
partner has the ace, he establishes your suit at 
once by playing the king, but if he keeps it until 
the next trick he makes your partner stop the 
suit at the third round. 

If the dealer has the king he wins the first 
trick with it, and has to lead up to your partner, 
who probably has a card of your suit to return 



Ace, queen, 
knave 



2o6 Badsworth on Bridge 



whenever he gets in ; and you may make five or six 
tricks in the suit instead of making the ace only; 
so even with a card of re-entry in your hand it is 
better to open with the queen, as your partner may 
get in sooner than you, in time for all the cards of 
your suit to make. 

Lead the fourth best. Some players 
lead the 10; this is a misleading card 
and there is no sufficient reason for 
leaving the general rule. 

You have the major tenace in your hand, and 
so you have not got to establish it as in the case of 
ace, knave, 10; when the king and the knave are 
with the dealer on your right, and Dummy has 
four to the 9, you make the 9 good by leading the 
10; if you have five cards of the suit, and no card 
of re-entry in your hand, you lose two tricks by 
leading the 10, instead of the fourth best; you 
will only make the ace and queen, whereas if you 
had led the fourth best you would have made the 
ace, queen, 10, and the small card. 

If the dealer has the knave and Dummy has the 
king, 9, 3, and 2, the knave wins the first trick, 
and Dummy will win two of the next three tricks 
in the suit. 

Some players lead the 10 from ace, queen, 10, 
9, which seems to be wantonly mischievous; 
there is no trick-getting advantage in leading the 



Ace, 
queen, ten 



What Card to Lead 207 



10 instead of the fourth best; if you lead the 9 
vour partner knows that you hold the ace, sup- 
ported by the king or queen when the first trick is 
won by the knaYe, for you would ha Ye led the king 
if your three higher cards had been the king, 
queen, 10; if the king is not in Dummy's hand 
your partner knows at the first trick that your suit 
is established, a most Yaluable piece of informa- 
tion at the beginning of the hand. 

EYen if your partner can gather all this from 
the lead of the 10 it seems unwise to leaYe a 
general rule for a fancy lead which giYes no 
additional chance of winning a trick, and with- 
holds information about the number of cards you 
hold in the suit. 

Lead the knaYe; it establishes the 
major tenace eYen if you find your part- 
ner with no card of Yalue in the suit ; if 
you always lead the 10 from king, knaYe, 10, to 
distinguish it from this lead your partner knows 
that you ha Ye the major tenace, and he can see 
from Dummy's cards if the finesse is good or not. 

EYen with the 9 in your hand as well, the 
knaYe is the best card to lead, for it is of more im- 
portance to let your partner know that you hold 
the ace than to show him the 9 ; if you lead the 
9 he is in doubt whether your best card is the 
king or the ace, whether your suit is established or 



Ace, 
knave, ten 



2o8 Badsworth on Bridge 



not. The knowledge too that you have this ace 
often enables him to place another ace in the 
dealer's hand; to mark the position of two aces 
for your partner may be of invaluable assistance to 
him in the play of the hand. 

Lead the fourth best with no trump ; 
when there is a trump the ace must be 
led if you are driven to lead the suit, as 
the danger of a ruff in the second round is too great. 

This is a lead about which good 
players hold different opinions when 
there is a trump; the pros and cons 
are nearly balanced. On the one hand 
there is the danger of never making the ace if 
you don't lead it; on the other hand you may be 
giving up the whole suit to the adversaries, and 
you are parting with a card of entry which may 
enable you to give your partner a lead he wants ; 
in my view the balance of advantage is in favour 
of the small card ; one likes to make more use of 
an ace than to throw it upon the table for rubbish 
to be shot on. The fourth best should be led, 
both with no trump and with a trump. 

Lead the knave, for you wish your 
partner to play the ace if he has it and 
not to block you, and you also let him 
know that you hold at least five cards 
of the suit; with less than five cards the king, 



Ace and 
four others 



Ace and 
three 
others 



King, 
queen, 
knave, and 
two others 



What Card to Lead 209 



the highest card of sequence, is led in accordance 
with the general rule. 

Lead the king ; the king is the best 
card to lead both with a trump and 
with no trump, even if you have only 
four cards of the suit. 

With five cards most players lead the king, but 
the lead is not universally accepted, as the ad- 
vantage derived from it does not appear to be 
clearly understood. 

If the dealer has the ace, knave, and another, 
your king will make the first trick; wary of the 
Bath coup, you leave the suit, and if you succeed 
in putting your partner in, his return of the suit 
establishes it at once ; should you get in before the 
eleventh trick you make four tricks in the suit, 
although your partner may only hold two small 
cards in it. 

If, however, you lead a small card which the 
dealer wins w T ith the knave, and your one card of 
re-entry is taken away from you before your part- 
ner gets in to return the suit, you will probably 
make only one trick in it, and possibly not even 
that ; leading the king gives you four tricks, lead- 
ing a small card gives you one trick. 

If the ace and knave only are in one hand the 
result from leading a small card is similarly dis- 
astrous. 

*4 



King, 
queen, ten 



2 to Badsworth on Bridge 



If the ace and a small card are with Dummy, 
and the knave and two others with the dealer, 
you establish the suit immediately by leading the 
king, and you will make four tricks in the suit. 

Even with only four cards of the suit the king 
seems to be the best lead ; you establish the major 
tenace if the ace wins the first trick ; if t is held 
up against you, you have the advantage of seeing 
Dummy's hand, a very great advantage if he 
made the declaration, to assist you in deciding 
which suit you will give your partner a chance in, 
if you think it advisable to change the suit. 

If the suit is evenly divided you may make three 
tricks in it, and you certainly prevent the adver- 
saries making two tricks in the suit before you 
make one; this is a very important point in 
the numberless hands in which the dealer finds 
Dummy with nothing in the suit he has risked; 
the dealer can see eight tricks and no more without 
parting with the lead. 

In all these hands, which are of constant occur- 
rence, the lead of the small card enabling the 
dealer to make the knave as well as the ace may 
give him the game. 

There is the further advantage of letting your 
partner know from the first that you have the 
queen and 10 in your hand; this information 
may be very useful to him in planning his defence. 



What Card to Lead 2 1 1 



Lead the king with a trump suit, or 
the adversaries might make the first 
two tricks and ruff the third ; with no 
trump, lead the fourth best. 

Lead the 10, and not the knave, so 
that your partner may know you have 
not got the ace. With no trump the 
plan of defence at the last resort often used to 
depend upon the question whether your lead of 
the knave was from ace, knave,. 10, or from king, 
knave, 10, when the knave w^as led from both 
combinations. 

When the dealer had established a long suit, 
playing him in with the ace of your suit often lost 
the game; so when your partner got in at the 
critical moment he was in doubt whether to play 
for the chance of finding one card in your hand 
which would establish his own suit, or to lead your 
suit back to you in the hope of your having the ace. 

When he knows that your lead is from the ace, 
10, and not from the king, 10, he can often see 
from the outset that the game is saved; there is 
no room for his winning cards if he has any and for 
yours as well ; he keeps one card of your suit, and 
wins a trick as soon as he can to lead it. 



King, 
queen, 
nine 



King, 
knave, ten 



King, 
knave, 
ten, nine 



Lead the 9, the fourth best. 



2 I 2 



Queen, 
knave, ten 



Knave, 
ten, nine 



Badsworth on Bridge 

Lead the queen, the highest of the 
sequence. 

Lead the knave, the highest of the 
sequence. 



Ten, nine, 
eight 



Lead the 10, the highest of the se- 
quence. 

The simplicity of this method of leading should 
attract a considerable number of players ; nearly 
all these leads really fall under the general rule, 
for the highest of a sequence or the fourth-best 
card is nearly always led. 

If you are beginning to play Bridge, this general 
rule is all you need know about the leads to com- 
mence playing ; you will never have a moment's hesi- 
tation about the card to lead when you have decided 
upon the suit ; with a little observation you will soon 
gather the few cases where the general rule is de- 
parted from ; as each fresh departure comes under 
your notice get hold of the reason for it as well as the 
fact itself, and refer to the book on Bridge you set 
store by, to see if it throws any light on the subject. 

At Whist there were more than fifty different 
ways of leading and following from these combina- 
tions which are here covered by two simple rules ; 
this absence of complication in the matter of lead- 
ing is one of the many reasons why Bridge is 
easier to play than Whist. 



THE PLAY OF THE HAND 



THE DEALER AND DUMMY 

As soon as Dummy's cards are on the table the 
dealer sees the combined strength, and he has to 
decide the goal to strive for and to settle how he 
means to try to reach it ; half a minute or less of 
uninterrupted thought is essential unless the hand 
is a clear one which he that runs can read. 

This is the moment of all others when Dummy 
should be dumb, if he wishes to make the game 
pleasant for his partner, and not to lessen the 
chance of success ; the dealer is not thinking 
whether he will play a 3, or a 6, or a knave from 
Dummy's hand, but he is settling his plan of 
campaign, and counting the tricks he can get, be- 
fore a long suit can be established against him; 
and this is often the moment an inconsiderate 
Dummy selects to interrupt his train of thought 
by silly remarks, " Well, partner, which is it to be, 
the 3, the 6, or the knave?" 

When the leader has settled what his definite 
goal for that hand is, he must remember, what has 

213 



2i4 Badsworth on Bridge 



been stated before, that his one aim should be to 
get there; he should not try to score anything 
more, if by doing so he should any way diminish 
the chance of reaching the goal. 

A great many players take the first false step in 
the play of a hand at the first trick by disclosing 
valuable information to an adversary in a futile 
attempt to mystify; if a queen is led and the 
dealer has the ace and king, the ace is con- 
stantly played. 

The leader's partner was anxious to know 
whether the lead was from queen high, or from 
ace, queen, knave; if the dealer wins the first 
trick with the king, the doubtful character of the 
lead is not determined, and the leader's partner 
must return the suit when he gets in, as it may be 
one of the strongest no-trump leads. 

The foolish and unnecessary disclosure the 
dealer has made about the position of the ace may 
decide the leader's partner to go for his own suit ; 
the issue of the hand may be very different from 
this player having two alternatives before him in- 
stead of the one obligation of returning a suit 
which might never be brought in. 

Similarly, when the fourth-best card is led, and 
Dummy has no honour in the suit, and the third 
hand plays the 10, if the dealer wins with the ace, 
both adversaries know that he holds the king ; if 



The Play of the Hand 215 



the dealer had won the trick with the king, his 
second honour (for he must have two honours) 
might have been the queen, when the lead would 
have been from the ace, knave, and the finesse 
would be good and the suit clear ; but the dealer in 
a bungling effort to conceal a card has exposed the 
position, and told the adversaries all about the suit. 

In playing an ace before a king the dealer gen- 
erally discloses some useful information, and until 
the game is well known it is safer for the dealer to 
play the high cards in order, and to play the low 
cards which have no trick-making value out of 
order. When the leader opens with a king, and 
his partner plays the 3 under it, if the dealer has 
the 4 and the 2, it is better to play the 4, as it 
leaves the leader in doubt whether his partner has 
four cards of the suit ; there is often a distinct ad- 
vantage in clouding the conversation of the oppo- 
nents, and as no trick can ever be lost by it, so 
long as the manoeuvre is limited to cards which 
have no trick-making value, it is a mild form of 
amusement which can be indulged in without any 
chance of loss. 

When the fourth-best card is led the dealer must 
remember that if he has not a card in his hand that 
can beat it, his right-hand adversary is also aware 
of the fact, and will allow it to win the first trick 
unless Dummy heads it ; so when any card is led 



216 Badsworth on Bridge 



which the dealer cannot beat, it should be headed 
by Dummy unless it is clear that neither the dealer 
nor Dummy can ever win a trick in the suit ; in 
this case Dummy's high card must be kept as long 
as possible with the view of compelling the leader's 
partner to block the suit. 

In opening a suit of which the dealer has nine 
cards in the two hands, the possibility of chicane 
should always be guarded against ; in most cases it 
is possible to make five tricks in the suit if one of 
the adversaries is void in it, and sometimes it is 
possible if either of them, no matter which, is void ; 
to take the simplest case in illustration of the 
latter position : the dealer has in his own hand the 
king, queen, 10, 3, 2, and Dummy has the ace, 9, 
5,3; the first trick must be won by the king, from 
whichever hand the lead may be, and the knave 
cannot make if either adversary has four cards; 
but if the ace is played to the first trick, the knave 
will win the fourth trick, if the dealer's left-hand 
adversary has four to the knave. 

In numerous cases when the dealer deplores his 
bad luck in a suit of eight or nine cards not clear- 
ing in three rounds, the failure is due to his neg- 
lecting to establish the major tenace for the third 
round, that is, playing so that after the second 
round he has the first- and third-best cards in one 
hand, with the lead in the other hand. 



The Play of the Hand 



In taking a finesse in a suit with eight cards in 
1 he two hands, you should provide against the con- 
tingency of four out of the other five cards being in 
the hand of the adversary you are obliged to 
finesse against ; e. g., with knave, 8, 7, in Dummy's 
hand, and ace, queen, 10, 9, 2 in your own, when 
the knave is led from Dummy, you must play the 
9 under it, so that if the king is sandwiched, 
Dummy can win the second trick with the 8, 
and then lead the 7 ; you will make five tricks 
straight off in the suit, although the king and 
three others are in one hand ; but if you thought- 
lessly play the 2 to the first trick, you are obliged 
to win the second trick, and you cannot catch 
the king. 

Unless the dealer can see his way to winning the 
game before the adversaries can make a trick in 
their original suit, it is safer for him to win the 
second and third tricks in the suit, in preference to 
the first and third ; for instance, with the king and 
two small cards in Dummy's hand, and the ace 
and one small card in his own, the dealer should 
let the adversaries win the first trick, unless there 
is manifest danger in giving them the opportunity 
of branching to another suit ; the dealer will win 
the second trick with the ace, and if the leader had 
six cards, his partner is exhausted, and cannot re- 
turn the suit to him ; so unless the leader has two 



218 Badsworth on Bridge 



cards of re-entry in his own hand he cannot make 
another trick in the suit. 

If the ace is played to the first trick and the 
leader's partner gets in to return the suit, the 
leader, with only one card of re-entry, can make 
four tricks in it instead of one; yet this error in 
play is of frequent occurrence with players who 
consider it sufficient to retain the commanding 
card until the third round. 

The knave is the card which is least appreciated 
and constantly subjected to rash experiments ; the 
result of leading the knave is to enhance the value 
of the 10 and the 9; if the dealer has knave, 3, 2 
of trumps in one hand, and the ace, queen, 7, 6, 5 
in the other, the lead of the knave takes away the 
chance of winning the first three tricks in the suit ; 
a small card should be led, and if the king is singly 
guarded with the second player, the suit is cleared 
in the second round, and five tricks are made 
in it. 

It is a bad plan to play Dummy's cards out of 
order; the dealer cannot derive any advantage 
from it ; he merely gives himself something more 
to remember, which he sometimes forgets. In a no- 
trump hand I have seen the dealer, who was by no 
means a bad player, throw the 9 to the first trick 
and the 10 to the second, and afterwards place the 
lead with the knave ; when the eleventh trick was 



The Play of the Hand 



219 



reached he could not remember whether his 8 was 
good, and after a long think he came to the con- 
clusion that the 9 was in, and led a losing card 
which gave the adversaries the last two tricks. 

Many a dealer, on the other hand, constantly dis- 
closes what he holds himself by playing the lowest 
card of a combined sequence from Dummy's hand ; 
e. g., with queen, 10, 8 in Dummy's hand, and 
knave, 9, and others in his own, the dealer plays 
the 8, third hand from Dummy, volunteering all 
possible information to the adversaries about the 
position of the knave and 9 ; if any card of a com- 
bined sequence is played third hand by Dummy, 
it should generally be the highest. 

When concealment of a card is necessary, many 
players borrow their tactics from the ostrich, which 
believes it can escape observation by burying its 
head in the sand; the dealer's only chance of a 
Slam often rests on his making a small card good 
through the adversaries unguarding the suit. 

If the dealer can get the Slam by making three 
tricks in clubs, of which he holds the ace, king, 10, 
2, he must discard the 2 and not the 10; if he 
throws the 10, the first club discarded by each 
adversary shows the other that the 2 is in the 
dealer's hand; but the position of the 10 cannot 
be shown until an adversary discards the knave or 
the queen, and such a high card is not likely to be 



22o Badsworth on Bridge 



thrown until it is too late for the information to 
be of any use. 

If the rubber you are playing in is of such an 
elementary character that you are sure an oppo- 
nent with the queen or knave in his hand will 
immediately jump to the conclusion when you dis- 
card the 10 that you can hold no lower card in the 
suit, it may be better to play up to his ignorance ; 
but the generality of players are beginning to be a 
little more observant of small cards than they used 
to be. So, unless the rubber is of a very social 
character, it is safer not to tattoo yourself with a 2 
on the chance of two adversaries failing to notice 
what you have gone out of your way to show them. 

The dealer must always ask himself, " Et apres?" 
before taking out trumps; it is not safe to draw 
the trumps merely to prevent an adversary mak- 
ing one; preventing an adversary making a par- 
ticular card does not necessarily give you a trick ; 
two constant causes of loss are: (1) The dealer 
neglecting to clear his suit before leading trumps ; 
if he has only five trumps the adversaries may get 
the first force on him, and either scare him from 
going on with the trumps, or establish a suit be- 
fore him; (2) the dealer drawing trumps when he 
can only play Dummy in with a trump to bring in 
an established suit, e. g., Dummy, with three cards 
good in a suit, has the king and two small trumps. 



The Play of the Hand 221 



and the dealer has five trumps to the aee, 10, but 
no card of Dummy's suit ; the dealer must lead a 
small trump and let the adversaries win the first 
trick ; he must then win the first trick he can, and 
lead the ace, and another trump, when Dummy 
makes four tricks and gives the dealer three dis- 
cards; this simple point of obvious play is fre- 
quently missed, and indifferent players rarely give 
away the first trick in trumps. 

At the end of a hand many a dealer carelessly 
spoils his own tenace; in a no-trump hand with 
four cards left, no spade having been played, the 
position was as follows : 

The Original Dummy O. L's partner 

Leader A losing heart and king, 10, marked with 

marked with 2 of spades. Four spades. 

Two winning 

hearts The Dcaler 

Two soades. Ace ' <* ueen > <>> 4 of s P ades " 



The dealer should lead the ace and play the 10 
under it from Dummy, so as not to spoil the tenace 
of the queen, 9 ; he must then lead the 4, and win 
with the king ; the 2 is led from Dummy and the 
9 and the queen must both win; but if the 10 is 
kept in Dummy's hand until the third round, the 
tenace is spoilt; if the dealer plays the 9 under 
the 10, a heart wins the last trick, and if he plays 



222 Badsworth on Bridge 



the queen on the 10 the knave of spades wins the 
last trick. 

This position lately occurred in a fair rubber; 
the dealer, who had allowed the knave to win the 
fourth trick, explained that it was absolutely im- 
possible for him to have made any more, for hav- 
ing won the first trick with the king, he dare not 
run the 10 on the second round, because if the 
knave had been with the other adversary the two 
long hearts would have made ; his partner and 
both adversaries expressed unqualified approval of 
his play and of his sound reasons for not doing 
what he ought never to have thought of; there 
was no one cruising about in the offing who cared 
to play the part of a candid friend and to disturb 
the general harmony. 

The danger of winning the second round of the 
leader's suit in no trumps, merely because his 
partner is exhausted, has been fully discussed in 
the chapter on the "Lead of the Fourth-best 
Card 1 ' ; it is better to allow his partner to stop him 
on the second round, when the leader cannot make 
another trick in the suit unless he has two cards 
of re-entry in his own hand. 

While the dealer holds the command of all the 
suits, he should play as early as possible for the 
doubtful tricks; e. g., with the ace and two other 
cards in his own hand, and the queen and another 



The Play of the Hand 223 



of the suit in Dummy, the sooner he tries to make 
the queen the more likely he is to do so; if the 
adversaries get a suit established first the queen 
may never make. 

The dealer should play the hand out to the end, 
or lay his cards on the table and show the adver- 
saries that they cannot get another trick, or that 
they can only get the trick or tricks which he pro- 
poses to give them; with ordinary players very 
little time is saved by explaining how a hand will 
work out to a result which they do not see at the 
first glance. 

The dealer should name the card he wishes 
Dummy to play in the simplest way consistent 
with his natural courtesy, and it is difficult to im- 
prove upon "Ace of hearts, please." If the dealer 
does not name with clear precision the card he 
wishes to play, Dummy should merely ask, " Which 
card?" 

If Dummy has the ace and queen of a suit, the 
dealer should not say, " Finesse," if he holds the 
king himself, for there is no finesse and the call is 
misleading. 

Towards the end of the hand the dealer, not 
knowing there is any value in any card in Dum- 
my's hand, sometimes calls, "Any card you 
please," for a discard. This is clearly wrong; for 
Dummy, who has caught the point the dealer has 



224 Badsworth on Bridge 



missed, does not like to keep the valuable card, 
and by pressing for precise orders he may start the 
dealer on a line of thought which may lead him 
right. 

Dummy would seem to have an easy part to 
play, but many chafe under the limitations ; Law 
62 seems to be systematically disregarded and 
Dummy constantly suggests the play of a card by 
touching it ; any player will be within his rights in 
enforcing this law when he chooses. 

The courts are disposed to give the widest possi- 
ble latitude of interpretation to the laws restrain- 
ing Dummy from taking part in the play of the 
hand or calling attention to any incident in respect 
of which a penalty may be exacted. 

Dummy is allowed (Case 13) to intervene if the 
opponents gather one of his partner's tricks, but 
if Dummy stops his partner gathering a trick 
which an adversary has won by a card which dis- 
closes a revoke, the penalty for the revoke cannot 
be exacted (Case 14). No player's sense of per- 
sonal honour need be disturbed by this decision, 
for it does not lay him under the obligation of 
being a party to scoring a trick which he knows 
his partner did not win; he can wait until the 
cards are cut for the next leal, and restore the 
trick to its rightful owners, when the score, if it 
has been entered, can be corrected. 



The Play of the Hand 225 



If the dealer claims a revoke from an adversary 
for playing a card which the adversary says he did 
not play, the penalty for the revoke cannot be 
exacted, if Dummy joins in the discussion and 
states in support of the claim that the card in dis- 
pute was played by the adversary (Case 27). 

Dummy is not entitled to tell an adversary who 
has taken up an exposed card that he must leave 
it on the table (Case 12). 

Although the dealer had himself noticed a re- 
voke and remarked that it was too late to save it, 
he was deprived of the penalty because Dummy 
said, "There is the missing diamond," on the card 
being subsequently played (Case 15). 

A consideration of these cases may perhaps in- 
duce a few players to cultivate in some measure 
the gift of silence when they are fretting under the 

limitations of Dummy. 
15 



THE PLAY OF THE HAND 

THE PARTNERS 

This is the interesting phase of the game, when 
the play is varied, and always attractive; the 
pleasure of playing with a partner you have never 
seen before is like the pleasure of a traveller hav- 
ing his first view of an unknown country ; there is 
something to discover, and there is the joy of un- 
certainty in both cases, with the same chance of 
disappointment or of satisfaction. 

For weal or woe, for better or worse, you are tied 
to this player irrevocably, with no chance of di- 
vorce, for half an hour's partnership, and each 
player should strive to be a colleague and not only 
a vis-a-vis, and to get and to give the greatest 
amount of pleasure from the game. 

Some players commence by asking each other 
if they play the Heart Convention, which consists 
in always leading a heart when your partner has 
doubled no trump ; now this is a convention pure 
and simple, with no reason for its existence but to 
bring doubling into the realm of the rule of thumb ; 
a fool and a philosopher are on level teims for the 

226 



The Play of the Hand 



227 



first lead at all events, when the partner demands 
that a heart shall be led. As players cannot dis- 
cover each other's practice on this point without 
an expensive experiment, and as each player 
would hesitate to double without some idea of his 
partner's view on the subject, this appears to be 
a question on which it is wise to have an under- 
standing before the first deal. 

But this should be the beginning and the end of 
the catechism ; all other disputed points of policy 
and play can be seen in a few deals, and each player 
should pick up his partner's views as the game 
moves on. 

The fullest disclosure of what you have in your 
hand and what you wish to do should be made 
to your partner at every opportunity, and you 
should work loyally together to further each 
other's aims and endeavours; if you each play 
for your own long suit you will rarely bring in 
either of them. 

The game should be made as simple and as 
easy as possible, and you should never set an 
indifferent partner thinking; a celebrated head- 
master of a public school said that a school- 
boy's first guess is always his best, and in your 
early days of Bridge your first impression of 
what should be done is more likely to be right 
than any conclusion which is reached after 



228 Badsworth on Bridge 



thoughtless vacillation or indefinite and undi- 
rected thought. 

To open the game by leading a false card is the 
worst step it is possible to start with, and cranky 
leads are the most ruinous form of deception 
throughout ; players who will not lead the fourth- 
best card, and players who lead the highest card 
of an under sequence, e. g., the 10 from king, 10, 9, 
8,3, not only withhold information from their part- 
ners, but give them a mistaken view of the posi- 
tion from the start. 

In no trumps the leader must always open with 
his strongest suit, if there is any strength in it ; and 
unless you have reason to believe that you have a 
stronger suit than your partner, you must devote 
all your powers to bringing his suit in. 

Give him as quickly as you can all information 
about the number and the value of the cards you 
hold in his suit; if the king is led, from king, 
queen, 10, your partner is anxious to know where 
the ace and knave are ; unless you see that you will 
make a card in Dummy's hand good in the third or 
fourth round, if you have the ace you should play 
it and return the suit at once; if you have the 
knave you should play it under the king to let 
your partner know there is no danger of his falling 
a victim to the Bath coup; many players put the ace 
on the king, but very few throw the knave under it. 



The Play of the Hand 229 



If your partner opens with a queen, unless 
Dummy's cards show that you may lose a trick by 
doing so, you should play either the ace or the 
king on it, unless you have five cards of the suit, 
when you may be stronger in it than your partner. 

You must be careful not to spoil your partner's 
tenace by keeping the second-best card of a suit 
when he holds the best and third-best cards ; it 
prevents him finessing against the dealer when 
you return the suit; e. g., your partner leads the 
6, Dummy lays down a cold king, and you have 
the knave, 8- 

You must play the knave under Dummy's king 
and not the 8, for if your partner has the ace, 10, 
your knave spoils his tenace, and stops his suit ; in 
this hand the dealer had the ace, 10, 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 
and no card of re-entry ; his partner played the 8 
to the first trick and when he got in he led the 
knave, which was the only card they made in the 
suit, as the dealer of course did not cover it with 
the queen, and the leader could not take it over; 
if the knave had been thrown to the first trick 
under the king, the leader would have made six 
tricks right away when the 8 was led. 

When you are compelled by discards to keep 
only one of your partner's suit to lead back to him, 
a low card will generally be more useful to him 
than a higher one ; many players see this with a 



230 Badsworth on Bridge 



very high card, but miss it when it is only a ques- 
tion of two pips. In illustration: 

The Leader 
Ace, king, 7, 5, 2. 
The Dealer: queen, knave, 3,2. 9. Dummy. 

10, 8, 6. 
The Leader's partner. 

The first trick was 5, 9, 10, queen; the leader's 
partner had to discard before he got in, and he 
threw the 6; w T hen he got in and led the 8, the 
leader, who had no card of re-entry, won with the 
king, and they only got two tricks in the suit ; had 
the 8 been discarded and the 6 led back, the 
leader would have made four tricks. 

When your partner opens with a high card you 
must begin to unblock at once; i. e., to part with 
a high card which might beat your partner's win- 
ning card in the third or fourth round and stop his 
suit; to unblock with certainty, if it is possible to 
unblock, you must keep the lowest card of the suit 
in your hand to the last ; so the highest card but 
one, the second-best card you have of the suit, 
should be played to the first trick. 

This simple rule applies equally when you have 
three or four cards of the suit; when you have 
three cards, the knave, 10, 2, you are obliged to 
play the 10, the second-best card, to the first trick 



The Play of the Hand 231 



if you wish to get out of your partner's way ; when 
you have four cards you must play the 10 to the 
first trick and the 7 to the second trick, which 
shows your partner that you have at least four 
cards of the suit with an honour ; this information 
is always useful to your partner, and especially so 
when he has only four cards in the suit himself. 

When you have to play your highest card on 
your partner's lead in a no-trump hand, and the 
trick is won by the dealer, if you have four cards 
of your partner's suit you should show it im- 
mediately. You should play your lowest card but 
one to the next trick if you cannot win it, and your 
lowest in the second round of that suit; as no 
player shows four cards of an adversary's suit, 
your partner knows you are telling him you have 
four cards of his suit ; an illustrative case of the 
advantage of this signal is given in the chapter 
on ' 4 Playing an Unnecessarily High Card." 

The leader is often careless about unblocking the 
suit he opened with when he may feel sure that his 
partner certainly has four, and possibly five cards 
of the suit; e.g., with queen, knave, 10, 8, the 
leader opened with the queen, on which his partner 
played the ace and returned the 2, which the dealer 
won with the king; the leader played the 8 under 
the king, and only made the queen and the knave, 
although his partner had five cards to the ace, 9 ; 



232 



Badsworth on Bridge 



had the leader unblocked by playing the 10 under 
the king, they would have won four tricks in the 
suit instead of three. 

When your partner opens with a fourth-best 
card and you see that the dealer has one card that 
can beat it, if you have a finesse which is good 
against Dummy it is generally advisable to try it ; 
e. g., the 7 is led, Dummy lays down the queen, 4, 
2, and you have the ace, 10, 3 : you should play the 
10 ; if the dealer's card is the 8 or the 9 you make 
all the diamonds straight off; if his high card is 
the king or the knave, you do not lose anything 
by the finesse unless the dealer has a Slam 
hand. 

Unless you have a good suit to open, you must 
not be deterred from returning your partner's suit 
because you are leading up to a tenace in Dummy ; 
if your partner opens with a small diamond, and 
Dummy lays down ace, queen, 8, on winning the 
first trick with the knave you must return the suit ; 
you cannot prevent the dealer making the ace 
and queen if he has a second diamond, and your 
partner cannot make a trick in the suit until the 
ace and queen are played ; your immediate return 
of the suit may enable your partner to make 
two or three long diamonds. 

But if, scared by the tenace, you lead up to 
Dummy's weakness, you may be taking away 



The Play of the Hand 



233 



from your partner the very cards he was relying 
upon to bring in his suit ; unless you have some 
clear idea how you are to reach your definite goal, 
you are playing a speculative game of your own ; 
your partner, under the impression that you have 
great strength in the suit, may abandon his suit 
for what he imagines to be yours, with the proba- 
ble result of establishing it for the dealer. 

If your partner has not two cards of re-entry 
there is not much advantage in giving him a 
chance in a fresh suit ; if he has two cards of re- 
entry it is better to utilise them to bring in his 
original suit ; to refuse to assist your partner in 
clearing his suit is a strong, high-handed measure 
which generally leads to disaster. 

When you see your partner cannot possibly get 
a trick in the suit he opened you must, of course, 
abandon it; your partner opens with a 5, and 
Dummy lays down the ace, king, 8, 6; you win 
with the knave, under which the dealer plays the 
10 ; it is obvious that the return of the suit must 
be to the advantage of the adversaries. 

If your partner opens in a no-trump hand with 
a strengthening card, you must realise at once that 
he has not more than one trick in his hand, and 
perhaps not even that ; the players who are tram- 
melled by the Shibboleth that you should never 
open a three-card suit in no trumps, oppose all 



234 Badsworth on Bridge 



review and discussion of the point and decline to 
approach it intelligently. 

A fair player with ace, 3, 2 of diamonds; 

10, 8, 4 of hearts ; 

8, 6, 5, 2 of clubs ; 

7, 4, 3 of spades, 
led the 10 of hearts in no trumps; his partner, 
with king, knave, 9, 5, 2 of the suit, played the 
king, which was taken by the ace, and when he 
subsequently got in returned the knave, and no 
trick was made in the suit. 

As the leader chanced to have opened with the 
only card in his hand which could have saved the 
game, which was thrown away by his partner's ex- 
traordinary conduct in playing a card by which it 
was obvious he could not possibly gain, the leader 
asked him what his view of advantage was in play- 
ing the king. He replied oracularly, " I do not 
understand a lead from three cards." 

This was Club Bridge and not a social rubber; 
an honest effort to ascertain a partner's view on 
a point of strange play was crushed by a Shib- 
boleth and a counter - charge of contributory 
negligence. 

Whether you approve of the lead or not, it is 
wise to make the best of it; your partner has 
transferred the direction of the campaign to you, 
and you should realise that you cannot expect 



The Play of the Hand 235 



much help from him; you must endeavour to 
make the dealer open as many suits as possible, 
and to keep Dummy out to prevent him leading 
through you. 

When Dummy, on a suit declaration by the 
dealer, lays down a singleton, with three or four 
cards in each of the other suits, a common form of 
error is leading out the ace ; this is called in Bridge 
slang, ''Taking a card out of the wet," but it is 
useless and expensive to take a card out of the wet 
which is not in it. 

If the dealer has the king and queen of the suit 
he gets two discards from Dummy, w r hich may 
lead to another suit being ruffed in the second or 
third round ; if the dealer has nothing in the suit 
it enables him the more easily to give Dummy one 
or two ruffs in it; Dummy's chance of getting rid 
of his singleton is exceedingly slight when he has to 
wait for a discard until the fourth round of a suit. 

It is dangerous to lead trumps up to Dummy's 
weakness without some clear and precise view of 
definite gain from it; you put the dealer in the 
position he would be in if Dummy led a trump, 
which he may have been wishing for, but which he 
was unable to reach without depriving Dummy of 
a good card it would have been disadvantageous to 
part with. 

You should never win your partner's trick and 



236 



Badsworth on Bridge 



deprive him of a lead without some weighty and 
distinct reason for wishing to have the lead your- 
self. 

You should get as quickly as possible to the suit 
you hope to make tricks in ; placing the lead or 
forcing the strong adversary in the hope of having 
the suit led to you often results in your suit being 
ruffed in the first or second round, owing to the 
discards you have given the adversaries time to 
get. 

You should give your partner an opportunity of 
making a small trump by a ruff, whenever and as 
often as you can, unless you know that he has a 
chance of bringing in a long suit and would prefer 
that you should lead a trump or force the strong 
adversary; this, however, must be knowledge and 
not merely hope. 

When you have three losing cards against two 
winning cards held by the dealer who is playing a 
strong no-trump hand, you should not discard one 
of them, although you have no chance of making 
one; by doing so you free the two winning cards 
for the dealer to lead out, which may worn' your 
partner by putting him to two discards; it also 
often helps the dealer to discover where an ace lies, 
as you probably would not discard one of the suit 
if you had an ace to get in with to make the long 
card. 



The Play of the Hand 237 

The lead is given away with such a light heart, 
because placing it with an adversary is looked 
upon as an act of high play ; while you have the 
direction of the campaign it is better in most cases 
to try and help your partner by a lead which you 
hope may be useful to him, than to transfer the 
command to the enemy, who are not likely to 
oblige him if they can help it ; you should have a 
distinct reason for your action, and a clear view of 
the gain which you hope will come from it, before 
making the adversaries a present of a lead. 

You should delay playing the coup de grace card 
as long as possible ; it constantly happens that you 
can see you must lose the rest of the tricks if you 
win the tenth or eleventh trick with the best 
trump ; there is no use in hesitating and thinking 
and murmuring " The same thing" ; you need not 
give a thought to what will happen if you pass the 
trick, as you cannot be in a worse plight. 

You should not wind yourself up too high, and 
be always striving to create opportunities for dis- 
tinction instead of waiting to grasp them when 
they come. The unattractive common round of 
playing your highest card third hand, and return- 
ing your partner's lead, wins more games than any 
other form of play ; a good player in a great ma- 
jority of hands returns his partner's lead in a 
second, while indifferent players hesitate and 



Badsworth on Bridge 



waver and always seem to be searching for some 
reason which will justify them in leaving the 
beaten track. 

You must not follow the abandoned practice of 
doing what was called " showing your own suit " 
before returning your partner's lead. This freak 
may take away from your partner a card of re- 
entry and prevent him bringing in the suit you 
won't help him to clear. Which suit do you 
imagine you are playing for, the one your partner 
led, or the one you opened? A side which at- 
tempts the impossibility of bringing in two long 
suits is not likely to establish either of them. 

The case is of course different when you can 
show your suit without parting with the lead; 
when you have ace, king, knave, and the queen is 
in Dummy's hand on your right, you should lead 
the king unless you and Dummy have eight cards 
of the suit between you; in this case it is not un- 
likely that by leading out the king you may pre- 
vent your partner leading through the queen to 
your tenace, by taking away from him the only 
card he has in the suit. 

You should decide which of your cards you mean 
to play before you begin to finger them ; pulling a 
card up and popping it back again, besides show- 
ing lamentable indecision, gives a great deal of 
information to a wide-awake adversary. 



The Play of the Hand 239 



There seems to be greater competition than ever 
in making losing coups — eccentric irregularities in 
play by which it is absolutely impossible to gain a 
trick, but very possible to lose one or two tricks. 
Holding up winning cards, or "bottling," as it is 
called in card slang, loses game after game; you 
should ordinarily win a trick when you can, unless 
you see a reasonable chance of making two tricks 
or of stopping an adversary's suit when his partner 
is exhausted, by holding up a winning card. 

You should never play a card which is false 
against your partner, so long as you want any- 
thing from him; but, if the dealer leads a small 
diamond with ace, knave, 10 in Dummy, and 
finesses the 10, with the king and queen in your 
hand, you must win with the king ; your partner 
know T s that you have the queen, or the dealer 
would have led it ; but if you win with the queen 
your partner does not know where the king is, as 
the dealer with the king in his hand might have 
decided to take the finesse in the first round. 

So in this position the king is the true card to 
play and the queen the false card. It was amus- 
ing to see this particular instance given as an illus- 
tration of the advantage of playing false cards at 
Bridge. 

Good play consists in knowing when to give 
rules the go-by in exceptional positions ; it was by 



240 Badsworth on Bridge 



violating every principle of the art of war that a 
great soldier showed his consummate generalship ; 
and the leader of a forlorn hope is free from the 
usual fetters, which are trammels to the competent 
and screens to the incompetent. 

It is the same at Bridge ; the player in the lonely 
furrow with no Bridge conversation, the player 
who is bound in the shackles of Shibboleths, the 
player who knows the rules of play but not the 
reasons for them, the player who keeps to the ruts 
of wont and use and never leaves the beaten track 
except for an occasional and injudicious effort for 
a losing coup, will have a quiet and uneventful 
time at the Bridge table. 

The greatest amount of pleasure and profit will 
be got from the game by the player who combines 
the soundest principles with the most indulgent 
practices; this is the true art of play, without 
which an interest in the game cannot be kept up 
indefinitely, for 

" The love that shall not weary must be art." 



ILLUSTRATIVE HANDS 



A, Y, B, and Z are the players, who sit at the 
table in this order : — 

A and B are partners against Y and Z. 

A is always the dealer, and B's cards are always 
exposed. 

Y is always the first leader. 

The card which is led is marked by an arrow 
at each trick. 

HAND I 
Drifting irretrievably at the first trick 
Score: Love-all. A passes and B declares no trump. 
A's Hand B's Hand, exposed 

♦ 9> 4< 2 ♦ A ce, King 

♦ 8, 5, 4 ^ Ace, Queen, io, 9 
^ Knave, 3 Ace, 9, 6, 2 

4» Queen, 10, 7, 4, 2 4* 9> 8 > 5 
The Play 

Trick 2 



Trick i 




B 




<? 








9? 






Z 






9? <? 












A 





B 



A A 



241 



242 

Trick 3 











Y 

















Badsworth on Bridge 

o 



B 















A 



o 

<0 



Trick 4 



00 
yo 

lo o 



B 

wm 





o ! 



A 



Trick 5 





B 






















Y 




A 




* * 




* * 




A 









z 

J 



Trick 6 




B 

jO V 
!0 <> 



io <c> 
lo^o 



A 









Trick 7 



B 



A 



Z plays out four win- 
ning Spades, and then 
leads the 6 of Clubs ; 
Y wins with the Knave, 
and then leads the King; 
and Y and Z make four 
bv cards. 



Illustrative Hands 243 



This hand is a good illustration of the danger of 
drifting at the first trick. With only two certain 
tricks in the black suits A should have decided 
promptly that to get five tricks and save the game 
was his goal, and should have made for it at once, 
by winning the first trick with the ace of hearts, 
and leading a diamond. 

No matter how the diamonds are divided A must 
get two tricks in the suit before the adversaries 
get a trick in spades, and the game could not have 
been lost. 

A held up the ace expecting Y to follow with 
a small heart which he could win with the knave, 
and lead a diamond ; then if he took the finesse 
successfully, he might make three tricks in diamonds, 
and get the odd trick. 

This is true; but it is unsound to risk the game 
on two chances coming off ; the first chance, more- 
over, was a very poor one, as Y's obvious game was 
to play D in with a spade, to make him open a suit 
at a disadvantage in preference to running blind- 
fold into a possible Bath coup. 

A had no chance of getting in to lead a diamond 
without the aid of a blunder from an adversary, 
which is a weak reed to lean upon. 

Trick 2. — Z played the 8 of spades to show 
strength in the suit ; Y could draw this inference at 
once, as the five lower spades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 were 
not likely to be in the dealer's hand. 



244 Badsworth on Bridge 



Trick 3. — As the six diamonds were equally 
divided between the adversaries, it made no differ- 
ence how A led them from Dummy's hand. He 
played, however, for the knave being singly guarded 
in one hand, and the king and three others being 
in the other hand. This was not the best chance 
of saving the game : the lead of the 9 gives two 
chances of getting two tricks in the suit, (1) the 
king being singly guarded, (2) the 9 drawing the king 
if the second hand did not cover with the knave. 

Trick 6. — A was right in clearing the diamond, 
although it resulted in the ace of hearts not making : 
he took the only chance of saving the game. 



Y's Hand 

♦ 10, 7 

$ Knave, 7, 6 
V King, Queen, 10,5,4 
King, Knave, 3 



Z's Hand 

A Queen, Knave, 8, 6, 5, 3 
♦ King, 3, 2 
V 8, 7 
4» Ace, 6 



This hand shows incidentally the advantage of 
leading the king, from the king, queen, 10, a lead 
which is now being questioned : had Y led a small 
heart, instead of getting four by cards he would 
have lost the odd trick. 



Illustrative Hands 245 



HAND II 

Saving a game by leading the king, from a four card 
suit, headed by king, queen, ten. 

Y's Hand B's Hand 

♦ 9, 8, 6 A King, 7, 3, 2 

4» King, Queen, 10, 2 4» 8, 7, 3 

Knave, 10, 9, 3 ^ King, 8, 2 

^ Knave, 10 ^ 8, 6, 5 

Score : Love-all. A dealt and declared no trump. 
The Play 

Trick 2 



Trick i 



B 



A 



B 



Y * * 



I 



Trick 3 

B 



Trick 4 

B 



246 

Trick 5 



Badsworth on Bridge 

o 



B 



A 



Trick 6 



[9 ^ 

y b©* 



9 9 



A 



p ^1 
<? Z 

[2 s?J 



Trick 7 



B 



9 





9 










z 


Y 




'■■ 







X 



Trick 8 




o 0| 



A has now made eight tricks, and whatever he 
leads Y and Z get the remaining five tricks and 
save the game. 

Trick i. — A is obliged to win the trick, for he 
cannot hold up the ace with the quint major of 
diamonds against him : if he had not taken the first 
trick, his adversaries might have got the next five 



Illustrative Hands 



247 



tricks in diamonds, and A would only have got 
the odd trick. 

If Y had opened with the two of clubs, as is some- 
times done with only four of the suit to king, queen, 
10, A would have won the first trick with the knave ; 
after winning the next seven tricks as he did, he 
would have made the ninth trick with the ace of 
clubs, and won the game. 

A's Hand Z's Hand 



Winning a game by asking for trumps, which would 
have been lost without a lead of trumps at the third 
trick. 

Score: 16-all. A dealt and passed; B declared 
hearts. 



If Ace, Queen, 7 
♦ 9. 3, 2 

Ace, Knave, 5 
djfe Ace, Queen, Knav 



/c, 4 



4» 9, 6, 4 
♦ 10, 5 



f 6, 5, 4 

4 Ace, King, Queen, 7, 4 



HAND III 



The Play 



Z's Hand 
^ King, Queen, 10 
^ Ace, King, Queen, 9, 
t?o 8, 3, 2 
♦ 7, 2 



B's Hand, exposed 
Ace, Knave, 9, 8, 7, 6 
7 ♦ 8, 6, 5, 3 
Ace 

Queen, Knave 



Badsworth 



on Bridge 



Trick i 



B 



Y f& 



A A 
A A 



A 

Remark.— Z seeing he can 
get four tricks in diamonds, if 
he prevents A ruffing the suit, 
begins to ask for trumps. 



Trick 2 



B 

























( 






* 

* ♦ z 


Y 










A A 










A 























Z completes his ask for 
trumps. 



Trick 3 



B 





^ 










( 























™ V 












Y 






z 


Y 








<? 





















_ 7 






3 



A 



Trick 4 



B 



Z 



Trick 5 



B 



A 

A 





■9 














9 






Trick 6 



B 



9 9 

A 



Illustrative Hands 



249 



Z gets the next three tricks with the ace, king, 
9 of diamonds, making two by cards, and winning 
the game. 

If Y had led any card but the three of hearts at 
the third trick, he would have lost the game instead 
of winning it : only one trick would have been 
made in diamonds, for A would have ruffed the 
second round, and led out the king and queen of 
clubs on which he would have discarded two 
diamonds from Dummy's hand : the ace of clubs 
would of course have been played from Dummy, 
before the second diamond was led for the ruff. 

The issue of this game depended upon an ask 
for trumps at the first trick. 

A's Hand Y's Hand 



An interesting struggle for the odd trick 

Score : A B 18. Y Z 24. A passes and B 
declares no trumps. 




HAND IV 



Z's Hand 



B's Hand, exposed 
Ace, Queen, Knave, 6 



* I0 > 7 

▲ King, Queen, Knav 

#9* Queen, 10, 6 

♦ 10, 9, 8 



'e,5,4 ♦ I o > 9> 5 > 3 
«?• King, Knave 
4 Ace, 7, 4 



250 



Badsworth on Bridge 



Trick i 



The Play 

Trick 2 





B 













































A 



15 































A 





z 



Trick 3 



B 



Trick 4 



B 



■ 









LJoUl 





9? 








9 





9 9 



Trick 5 



B 























z 






































-A 















































A 



Trick 6 



B 



0& 



Z 



I*. 



Trick 7 



Illustrative Hands 

Trick 8 



251 



B 











* 










A 




* 

A 





A 





B 





o| 




A A 






A 






A A 




A A 






A A 





A 



Trick 9 



B 



*** 



A A 
A~ 
A " A 

A 
















z 

J 



Trick 10 



B 



A * A I 



A A 

IT 



1 4 



Trick ii 

B 



Trick 12 

B 



252 Bads worth 



on Bridge 



Trick 13 

B 

^ m 



Y <?- 




891 z 



1 J( %rfW, ifc 



A and B get the odd 
trick and win the game. 



This was a most interesting game : B called 
hearts to the score in preference to no trumps, as 
one trick took the adversaries home in hearts, while 
A B wanted two tricks : no trumps gave them 
a level start. 

Trick 2. — Z's lead of the 5 of diamonds was 
a bold dash for the first six tricks : he urged rightly 
that unless he found his partner with one of the 
unseen aces the game was lost, and so he played 
for the ace of diamonds being in his partner's 
hand, as the lead of an honour would make Dummy's 
10 good for the fourth round. It was bad luck 
finding the 8 as well as the ace in the dealer's hand, 
enabling him to lead a heart through twice. 

The best justification there can be for playing so 
early in the hand in the hope of finding a specified 
card with your partner is the knowledge that he 
cannot make a trick in the suit he opened with. 



Illustrative Hands 



253 



Trick 4. — The 7 of diamonds from Y shows the 
dealer that Z holds the 4 as well as the king 
and queen. 

Trick 7. — The dealer has won five tricks out of 
six, and has the ace of spades in Dummy's hand. 
What is the best chance of making either the king 
of clubs or the queen of spades ? 

The dealer decided to play Z in with a diamond, 
giving him the next three tricks ; three discards 
were sure to worry Y, and to give the dealer some 
guidance ; the discards gave no trouble to the 
dealer in either hand. 

Z was obliged to discard three clubs, leaving only 
ace, queen, and 10 unseen by the dealer, who rightly 
concluded that the ace of clubs was blanked in 
Y's hand. 



A's Hand 



Y's Hand 



V 9> 5> 2 

♦ Ace, 8 

4» 9> 8 . 4» 3 

4ffe Queen, 6, 5, 2 



V King, 8, 4, 3 
♦ 7. 2 

4i Ace, 7, 5, 2 
King, Knave, 3 



254 



Badsworth on Bridge 



HAND V 

Losing a game by spoiling a partner's tenace. 

Score: Love all. A dealt and passed to B, who 
declared no trumps. 

B's Hand, exposed 
V King 

^ Ace, Queen, Knave 
<$• King, Queen, Knave, 8, 7,5 
4fb Ace, Queen, 3 



Z's Hand 
V Knave, 8 
♦ King, 7, 2 

Ace, 6, 3 
$ to, 9, 7, 6, 4 



Trick i 



B 



Yp .9 

1<? 9 



9? 









9 9 



A 



Trick 2 



B 



Trick 3 



Trick 4 



B — 

[SB 1 



B 



*** 



o o 



<> o 



A 



A 

A 



Illustrative Hands 



255 



Trick 5 

B 



















A 





The rest of the hand 
plays itself; no matter 
what Z leads. Y Z can 
make no other card but 
the king of diamonds. 



Spoiling your partner's tenace consists in volun- 
tarily keeping a card which is between his best 
and third best cards in value. 

In this case Y held the ace and ten of hearts, and 
as the queen was in the dealer's hand, his finesse was 
good, and he could have made six hearts straight 
off if Z had led him a card lower than the ten. 

Z lost the game at the first trick, the time when 
so many games are thrown away, by spoiling his 
partner's tenace, by playing the 8 of hearts instead 
of the knave. 

Had Z played the knave to the first trick and led 
back the 8, Y Z would have got the odd trick 
instead of losing four by cards. 

A high card is more likely to be harmful than 
useful to your partner, when you can only keep one 
card of his suit to lead to him. 



256 Badsworth on Bridge 

A's Hand Y's Hand 

V Queen, 5, 4 V Ace, 10, 9, 7, 6, 3, 2 

♦ 10, 8, 6, 4, 3 4 9> 5 

4» 10, 2 4» 9, 4 

4* King, 8, 2 ^ Knave, 5 



HAND VI 



Showing four cards of your partner's suit by playing 
an unnecessarily high card on an adversary's suit. 

Score: Love-all. A dealt and declared no trumps. 

Y's Hand B's Hand, exposed 

V Ace, Knave, 9, 6, 3 I 7, 5 



4 7> 5 ? 3 
4§ Queen, 3, 2 

♦ 5. 4 



^ Knave, 8, 6, 4 

4» 9 

$ Knave, 8, 7, 6, 3, z 



Trick i 



B 



Trick 2 



B 



Trick 3 



4. 



Trick 5 



Illustrative Hands 

Trick 4 



257 



B 



A 



B 




9 9? 
9 9 



B 



A 



4. * 



Y wins the next three 
tricks with the knave, 9, 
3 of hearts, and Y Z save 
the game. 



The dealer wins the remaining tricks and scores 
two by cards. 24. 

Trick 2. — Z plays the 8 of clubs. 

Trick 3. — Z plays the 4 of clubs, showing the 
8 in trick 2 to have been an unnecessarily high 
card. Z cannot be showing four clubs, as no player 
gives this information to an adversary on his lead. 



253 Badsworth on Bridge 



Z is not asking for a club to be led, and the only 
information he can be trying to communicate is that 
he has four cards of the suit his partner led. 

In this hand the information was of the greatest 
value to Y, as it showed him that the queen was 
unguarded in the dealer's hand ; he, therefore, led 
out the ace, and made his four hearts. 

As the dealer and Z had four hearts left between 
them, it would have been risky to lead the ace on 
the chance of Z holding the three small hearts, 
and Y, whose suit was established with the tenace 
good, might have tried to play his partner in with 
a diamond or a spade : had Y led any card but the 
ace of hearts at trick 5, the dealer would have won 
the next seven tricks with the ace king of diamonds, 
the ace king of spades, and the three long clubs : 
A B would have made four by cards and won the 
game. 

A's Hand Z's Hand 

^ King, Queen V 10, 8, 4, 2 

4 Ace, King, 9 ♦ .Queen, 10, 3 

4» Ace, King,Knave, 10,7,5 4» 8, 6, 4 

Ace, King $ Queen, 10, 9 



Illustrative Hands 



259 



HAND VII 

A loss of nine tricks by underrating the enemy 



Y's Hand 
V Ace, Queen, 7, 6, 5 
♦ Queen, 7 
t$t Ace, 10, 9 
Ace, King, 2 
Score : Love-all 



Trick i 



B 



B's Hand, exposed 
¥ to, 9, 4, 2 

♦ Knave, 6, 5, 4, 2 
4* 4> 2 

♦ 10, 8 
A dealt and declared no trumps. 

Trick 2 

B 





9 








• 



9 <5> 
9 <? 



Trick 3 



B 



9 <? 



- 


V 




- 



9 



The dealer A has now 
made two hearts ; he 
wins the next five tricks 
with the queen, knave, 
8, 7, 5 of clubs, and the 
remaining five tricks with 
the ace, king, knave, 
6, 5 of diamonds, and 
gets the Little Slam, with three aces against him 
in one hand. 



200 



Badsworth on Bridge 



Trick i. — The dealer wins with the king instead 
of the knave, to induce Y to think that the knave 
is in Z's hand : Y fell into the trap, and led a small 
heart at trick 3 for his partner to win with the 
knave, so as not to make the 10 in Dummy's hand 
good for the fourth round. 

Y fell into the common error of underrating the 
enemy, for if the knave had been in Z's hand the 
dealer would have played the 9 from Dummy's 
hand to make Z put up an honour, and would not 
have allowed the 8 to draw his king. 

Y played badly, for even if the knave had been in 
Z's hand, he ought to have directed Z which suit 
to put him in with, by first leading the king of 
spades : had he done this Z would have shown his 
strength in spades by playing the 9, which Y would 
know could not be his lowest card in the suit : 
Y would, therefore, have gone on with the ace of 
spades, and then led the 2 when Z would have made 
four more tricks in the suit. 

Y, Z, who had made the ace of clubs, would have 
made six spades, and the ace and queen of hearts, 
getting three by cards, and winning the game, 
instead of losing a Little Slam, a difference of nine 
tricks in one hand. 



A's Hand 
King, Knave 
Ace, King, 10 



Z's Hand 



4» King, Queen, Knave, 8, 7, 5 
# 7> 4 




■6,5,3 



Illustrative Hands 



261 



HAND VIII 

Winning your partner's trick with an ace to give him 
a sure card of entry. 

Score: Love-all. A deals, and declares no trump. 



A's Hand 
V Ace, Queen, 8, 6 
^ Ace, 6, 2 
4§ Ace, Queen, 5, 2 
4* Knave, 5 



B's Hand, exposed 

* 5 

^ Queen, Knave, 10, 8 

* 7> 3 

King, Queen, 10,9,7,6 



Trick i 



B 















o v o 
0^0 



o o 
o 



Trick 3 



B 



A 



Trick 2 



B 



a 4 



A 4 



A 



Trick 4 



B 



9? ^ 



262 



Badsworth on Bridge 



Trick 5 



B 



0% 



o 
A 



Trick 7 



o 
o 
o 



4 * 



Trick 6 



H 

A 



9 



A B win the remaining 
six tricks with the queen 
of diamonds, king, queen, 
10, 9 of spades and the 
ace of clubs, and make 
five by cards. 



Trick i. — The game depended upon the dealer 
taking over Dummy's 10 of diamonds with the ace. 
Getting the ace out of the way gave Dummy 
a certain card of entry in diamonds, which enabled 
him to bring in four long spades. 

If the ace had not been played to the first trick 
A B could not have won the game. 

This hand shows the advantage of planning the 
campaign with a careful regard to details, before 
playing to the first trick. 



Illustrative Hands 



Y's Hand 
9 King, io, 2 
♦ King, 7, 5, 4, 3 
King, Knave, 8 
<jt Ace, 8 



Z's Hand 
^ Knave, 9, 7, 4, 3 

♦ 9 

4* 10, 9, 6, 4 

♦ 4, 3, 2 



HAND IX 

Losing a game by keeping an 8 instead of a 6, to return 
the original lead with. 



Z's Hand 
9 Knave, 9, 5, 4 
4 10, 8, 6 
4* Knave, 7, 3 
♦ King, 8, 7 



B's Hand, exposed 
9 King, Queen, 10, 7, 3 

♦ 9 

4* 9, 6, 4 

♦ 10, 9, 3, 2 



Score: Love-all. A dealt, and declared no trumps. 



Trick i 



Trick 2 



B 



B 



264 

Trick 3 



Badsworth on Bridge 

Trick 4 



B 



4. 4. 
4. -J. 



4. 4. 



B 



4« A 



Trick 5 



B 



a a 



4. a 4. 
• * ♦ 



Trick 6 



B 











z 


Y 










- 





o o 






Trick 7 



B 



9 v 



9 

9? 



9 



Trick 8 



B 





r 






A A 






z 


Y 






V 






A A 



A A! 



A A 

A 
A * A 

A 

A A 



Trick g 



Illustrative Hands 
Trick io 



26s 




Trick ii 



B 





^ 






t 
















Y 









9? 1 





















SI 

111 



B 




















i n 




0! Z 
















A 





A 



Y has nothing to lead 
but a diamond, and A 
wins the two remaining 
tricks with the queen of 
diamonds and the knave 
of spades. A B get four 
by cards and win the 
game. 



Trick 6. — Z lost two tricks by discarding the 
6 of diamonds instead of the 8, in contravention of 
the general rule that when you can only keep one 
card of your partner's suit to lead back to him a low 
card is more likely to be useful than a higher 
card. 

If Z had discarded the 8 of diamonds on this 
trick, when he got in with the king of spades, he 
would have led the 6 of diamonds, which his partner 



266 Badsworth on Bridge 



could have taken over with the 7, and won the last 
three tricks with the ace, king, 4 of diamonds. Y Z 
would have made the king of spades and four 
diamonds, and the game would have been saved. 

A ! s Hand Y's Hand 

V Ace ^ 8, 6, 2 

+ Queen, Knave, 3, 2 4 Ace, King, 7, 5, 4 
4* Ace, King, Queen, 10,2 4» 8, 5 
$ Ace, Queen, Knave 4)b 6, 5, 4 



HAND X 

Showing the danger of prematurely leading out an 
ace when Dummy has a single card of the suit, with no 
prospect of a discard. 

Score : A B, 6. Y Z, 24. A dealt, and passed to 
B, who declared hearts. 



Z's Hand 

V Ace, 3 

^ Ace, 9 

Knave, 10, 3, 2 
Ace, Knave, 9, 7, 4 



B's Hand, exposed 

¥ King, Knave, 10, 9, 8, 6 
4 Knave, 7, 6 
4» 7> 6 > 4 
♦ 10 



Trick i 



Illustrative Hands 
Trick 2 



B 



























o v o 





























A 





B 


r > 








Y ? v 














■ 






A 



267 



Trick 3 



B 

1 11] 



9 






9 



Trick 5 



A 



B 



Trick 4 



B 



0^0 
Y 0% 

0*0 



o 
o 








0_ 






Trick 6 



A 



B 



268 

Trick 7 



v 00 

!0 V 



Badsworth on Bridge 
Trick 8 



B 



5 


9 








7 



r 



A 



B 



A 



Trick 9 



Y 



Trick 10 



B 



9 9 







o o, 
A 



:% z 



A A A 
A 4 A 



Bj 

A A 
A A 
A A 



A 



A leads the 2 of diamonds, and discards the 7 of 
clubs from Dummy, and the two long trumps win 
tricks 12 and 13. 

A B get three by cards and win the game. 

Trick 5. — Z committed the very common blunder 
of leading out an ace, lest Dummy's single card, 
which he has no prospect of discarding, should 
vanish before the ace wins a trick. 



Illustrative Hands 



269 



In this hand Z ought to have known positively 
that Dummy's card could not be discarded, as 
Y held the best diamond, and he could himself 
prevent a fourth club making : so the lead of the 
ace of spades was a signal instance of irrational 
pusillanimity. 

When Dummy cannot get a discard of a singleton 
until the fourth round of a suit, it is generally, 
inadvisable to lead out an ace. 

Trick 7. — The discard of the 10 of diamonds by 
Z was unsound ; he knew he could not make 
a diamond, but as the dealer was marked with 
two diamonds, he ought to have kept both his 
diamonds to prevent the dealer making one : had 
he done so, he would have made either the queen 
of clubs or the queen of diamonds, and saved the 
game. 



A's Hand 



Y's Hand 



y Queen, 5, 4 

+ 5> 4> 3, 2 
Jfo Ace, King, 9 
4* King, 6, 5 



^ 7, 2 

£ King, Queen, 10, 8 
•ft Queen, 8, 5 
4 Queen, 8, 3, 2 



270 Badsworth on Bridge 



HAND XI 

A coup which altered the issue of the rubber 

Z's Hand B's Hand, exposed 

Queen, Knave, 5, 3, 2 Ace, King, 8 
£ 10, 9, 4 £ Ace, King, Queen 

$ Ace, Queen 4)1 King, Knave, 10, 9, 3, 2 

Score : Game-all : 18 all. A dealt, and passed to 
B, who declared no trumps. 

Trick i 



B 



4. *\ 



Trick 2 



B 



» ij 
A 



Trick 3 



B 



9 9? 



Trick 4 



B 



A A 
A A 
A*A 



Illustrative Hands 271 



Z leads the 4 of clubs, and Y wins the next five 
tricks with knave, 10, 8, 7, 6 of clubs 

Y Z get the odd trick, and win the rubber. 

Trick i. — The dealer played badly by winning 
with the ace, and disclosing the position of the 
king; had he won with the king Z might have 
won the first trick in spades with the queen, on the 
chance of his partner having led from ace, queen, 
knave. 

Trick 2. — The dealer's announcement that he 
held the king of clubs drove Z to try the coup of 
winning with the ace instead of the queen ; the five 
tricks the dealer wanted to win the game were lying 
on the table ; if Z wins the first round of spades 
with the queen, the dealer is compelled to win the 
game straight off, as the ace of spades may bring all 
the clubs in. 

Trick 3. — Z led the 3 instead of the 4 to induce 
the dealer to think he either had two more clubs, 
or none at all ; in either case, the dealer cannot 
lose the game by leading a second round of spades, 
for if Z has two more spades, Y could only have 
four, which would bring him to the sixth trick, and 
the dealer must get the rest after the clubs are 
exhausted. 

The dealer might have suspected the coup if he 
had approached the subject from an adversary's 
point of view : the only chance Z has of keeping 



272 Badsworth on Bridge 



the dealer off winning the game right away, is to 
make him think his tenace in spades is good, and 
the suit established ; the queen would be a coup de 
grace card, compelling the dealer to win the rubber, 
and so Z must play the ace ; and in these circum- 
stances his playing the ace affords no ground for 
thinking that he does not hold the queen. 

So the dealer, after the ace of spades had been 
played, should have been content to make three 
diamonds, two hearts, and the king of spades, by 
which he would have scored two by cards, and won 
the rubber. 



Losing a game by neglecting to guard against chicane 



A's Hand 



Y's Hand 



♦ 8, 7, 5, 2 
Ace, King 

♦ 8, 6, 5 




HAND XII 



A's Hand B's Hand, exposed 

9 9, 7, 6, 5 V Knave, 8 

$ 6, 4 $ Ace, 3, 2 

4» Knave, 10 4* Ace, 5, 3, 2 

$ King, Queen, 10, 9, 8 + Ace, 6, 3, 2 



Illustrative Hands 



Score: A B, 24, Y Z, 12. A dealt, and passed to 
B, who declared no trumps. 
Trick i 



B 



o° 
o 

o 



o 
o 



■OS 



o 
o 
o o 



A 



Trick 2 



Trick 3 



o o 
o o 



o 



*A* 
A A 

*A* 

A~A 



o 

0% 



B 



o o 


o o 



o 

o 
o 



o o 
o o 



0^0 

0^0 



A 



Trick 4 



B 



A A 



Trick 5 



Trick 6 



B 



B 



274 

Trick 7 



Badsworth on Bridge 



B 





* 
















•r 
A A 






A A A 



Y Z have the best club, 
two long diamonds, and 
four hearts to win the 
remaining six tricks, so 
Y Z get two by cards and 
win the game. 



Trick 4. — The lead of the ace was bad, but the 
error is of common occurrence, with only four 
cards of the suit in the adversary's hands; many 
a player carelessly goes for the chance of dropping 
the knave in this position without considering 
whether he can get five tricks, even if the knave 
and three small cards are with either adversary. 

The dealer could have seen directly Dummy's 
cards were on the table that he could win the game 
with five spades, and the ace of clubs, and the ace 
of diamonds. 

No matter on which side chicane chanced to be, 
no one but himself could prevent him winning the 
game. 

The awakening was prompt, for Z's discard on the 
ace of spades showed the dealer that the game was 
over, and he went to save what he could from the 
wreck : if he had not led a club at trick 7 the ace 
would never have made. 



Illustrative Hands 



Y's Hand 
V King, 4, 3 
♦ King, Knave, 9, 7, 5 
4* King 

4jt Knave, 7, 5, 4 



Z's Hand 
¥ Ace, Queen, 10, 2 
^ Queen, 10, 8 
<fr Queen, 9, 8, 7, 6, 



INDEX 



Ace in cutting, 27 
Amenities 121 

Asking for trumps, 77 
Author, practice of the, 10 

Bridge, compared with whist, 4 

, description of, 1 

.introduction into England, 3 

Bystander, referring to, 47, 50 
, remark by, 47 

Calling for trumps, 77 

Cards, exposed. 39 

, liable to be called, 39 

, placing, 46 

, torn or marked, 47 

, when considered as played, 38 

Cases and Decisions, 5 5 

Mistaken declaration, 55 
Changing declaration, 55 
Passing before turn. 56 
Passing out of turn. 56 
Doubling and redoubling, 57 
Leading before last trick is turned, 
Cutting without dealer's consent. 5 
Revoke by fotirth hand. 59 
Revoke by dealer, 60 
Leading out of turn, 60 

2 77 



278 Badsworth on Brid 



Cases and Decisions — Continued 

Dummy's right to exact penalty, 61, 

Score of revoking side, 63 

Leading from wrong hand, 63 

Misdeal, 64, 66 

Revoke not established, 64 

Penalty for revoke, 65 

Winning card played out of turn, 67 

Taking back card played, 67 

Looking at card during deal, 68 

Dummy's testimony, 68 

Throwing down hand by dealer, 69 
Chances, mathematical, 21 
Cheltenham Spade, 145 
Chicane, 25 

Clubs, declaration in, by dealer, 163 

, declaration in, by dummy, 169 

Command of suit, 72 
Conventions, 19, 76 
Conversation, 13, 21, 77 
Correcting erroneous score, 26 
Cutting, 27, 30 

, for partner, 33 

out, 28 

, without dealer's consent, 59 

Deal, 30 

Dealing for partner, 33 

out of turn, 33 

Declaration by Dealer, 142 

No trump, 153 

Hearts, 158 

Diamonds, 162 

Clubs, 163 

Spades, 164 
Declaration by Dummy, 166 



Index 



Declarations, 49 

, changing, 55 

, defensive, 144 

, mistaken, 55 

, out of turn, 34 

Declaring trumps, 33 

Diamonds, declaration in, by dealer, 162 
Discard, 113 
Discard, false, 117 
•, protective, 116 

Discarding a higher before a lower card, 88 

conventions, 114, 116 

from strong suit, 114 

Doubling, 8, 175 

Doubling, and redoubling, 35,57 

, by dealer's right-hand adversary, 57 

, limit to, 126 

, no trump, 175 

, spades, 179 

Dummy, 36 

, testimony by, 68 

whist, 7 

Dummy Bridge, 52 

Dummy's right to exact penalty, 61, 62 

Eleven: A Ready Reckoner, 105 

Entry and re-entry, 28 
Error, cards played in, 42 
Etiquette of Bridge, 49 

Exposed cards, 32, 39 

Finesse, 138 
Forcing, 118 

Fourth-best card, lead of, 91 
Game, 23 

General Principles, 10 



280 Bads worth on Bridge 



Goals, 137 

Good Start and Definite Goal, 133 

Grand slam, 26 

Heart convention, 22, 190, 226 
Hearts, declaration in, by dealer, 158 

, declaration in, by dummy, 169 

Honours, 24 

Illustrative Hands, 241 
Introductory, 1 

Last trick turned, 47 
Laws of Bridge, 23 

The rubber, 23 
Scoring, 23 
Cutting, *7 

Formation of table, 27 

Cutting out, 28 

Entry and re-entry, 28 

Shuffling, 29 

Deal, 30 

New deal, 31 

Declaring trumps, 33 

Doubling and redoubling, 35 

Dummy, 36 

Exposed cards, 39 

Cards liable to be called, 39 

Cards played in error, or not to a trick, 42 

Revoke, 43 

Calling for new cards, 46 

General rules , 46 
Lead of Fourth-Best Card, 18,91 
Leading before last trick is turned, 58 

before partner has played to last trick, 40 

from wrong hand, 37 



Index 



Leading out of turn , 4 1 

, with two weak suits, 190 

Learning the game, 1 
Limit, 126 
Little slam, 26 
Long suit, 22 

Looking at card during deal, 32, 68 

over adversaries' hands by dummy, 38 

Misdeal, 31, 64, 66 
Missing cards, 32 

Naming dummy's cards, 223 
New cards, calling for, 46 
New deal, 31 

No trump declaration by dealer, 153 
No trump declaration by dummy, 166 

Pack, imperfect, 33 
Partners, 133 

Partner's suit, command of, 71 
Passing, 19, 21 

before turn, 56 

out of turn, 56 

Penalties, 47 

, consulting in regard to, 48 

Penalty, for revoke, 41, 43 

, wrong, 47 

Players, selection of, 27 

Playing an Unnecessarily High Card, 109 

Play of the Hand, 213, 226 

Dealer and dummy, 213 

The partners, 226 
Points, 126 

Points, average of rubber, 127 
Probability, 17 



282 Badsworth on Bridge 



Returning partner's lead, 77 
Revoke, 43 

, by dealer, 60 

, by fourth hand, 59 

, concealing a, 51 

, not established, 64 

, penalty for, 65 

, saving a, 45 

Rubber, 23 
Ruff.. 20 

Score, error in, 26 

— — of revoking side, 63 

Scoring, 6, 23 

Shackles of Shibboleths, 70 

Shibboleths, 22 

' ' Showing your own suit , " 238 
Shuffling, 29 

for partner, 33 

Singleton, leading a, 20 
Singleton v. suit, 192 
Slam, 26 
Slow players, 20 
Sorting cards, 135 

Spades, declaration in, by dealer, 164 
Stakes, 128, 130 
, small, 128 

Strengthening card, lead of, 187 
Superstition, 134 

Table, formation of, 27 
Taking back card played, 67 
Throwing down hand, 69 

the lead, 73 

Total score, 26 
"To the score," 74 



Index 



Tricks, gathering and stacking, 140 

Two-card signal, 87 

Two cards played at once, 39 

Unnecessarily high card, playing an, 85, 109 

What Card to Lead, 201 

Ace, king, queen, 202 

Ace, king, without queen, 203 

Ace, queen, knave, 205 

Ace, queen, ten, 206 

Ace, knave, ten, 207 

Ace and four others, 208 

Ace and three others, 208 

King, queen, knave, and two others, 208 

King, queen, ten, 209 

King, queen, nine, 211 

King, knave, ten, 211 

King, knave, ten, nine, 211 

Queen, knave, ten, 212 

Knave, ten, nine, 212 

Ten, nine, eight, 212 
What Suit to Lead, 186 
Winning card played out of turn, 67 



GOOD FICTIONS 



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NOV 21 1903 



